A Stowaway's Story
by Momolovesanime
Summary: Magnolia ate the Tick-Tock Devil Fruit, allowing her to stop time at will. Because of this, she was taken in by the navy at a very young age. Many years of training later, she escapes her prison and hides out on a pirate ship. Little did she know she'd end up becoming the Straw Hat Pirate's very own watchman!
1. Beginnings

It all started with a fruit. A Devil Fruit, to be exact. That's what caused me to have such a messed up life full of greed, tears, pain, adventure, and near-death experiences. But I wasn't always the one being greedy, crying, having adventures, or nearly dying. No, my friends and family shared those times with me.

To start from the very beginning, my mom married a navy officer who dreamed of making it big one day. He barely ever came home so it was just the two of us for the shortest time, Mom and I. Whenever Dad did come home, he would always apologize to us for not being a good father and husband, and then go back out onto his ship within days.

Mom always told me to keep hoping someday he'd come home for good. I shared her optimism. We still loved him even after he practically abandoned the two of us. He'd write and say he loved us and missed us. But I still felt somewhat empty and longed for him to come home for an extensive period of time.

He wrote to us one day saying that he'd found something spectacular and was coming home immediately to show us. Within the very week, he showed up on our doorstep with a small bag in hand.

"You'll never guess what I found, Honey!" he said happily to Mom. He smiled as he picked me up and hugged me tightly. He set me down and kissed Mom. "Our troubles could be over with this!"

"What is it?" Mom asked.

"I found a Devil Fruit!" he said. "I don't know what powers it holds, but it's a Devil Fruit alright!" He pulled a fruit out of the bag and set it on our kitchen table. It was a completely pale yellow fruit shaped like an orange with swirls on it. "These things can go for millions of Berries!"

Mom was just staring at it. I had no idea what was going on.

"What do you think?" he asked. "Should we sell it, or eat it?"

Mom lifted her piercing gaze onto my father. "Maybe we should think about it…" Mom said. "We should take a few days to think about our decision…"

Something seemed a little weird about her, I could sense it.

"You're probably right," he said.

Mom spent most of the day just staring at the fruit on our kitchen table.

Later that day, I finally asked him, "Daddy? What's a Devil Fruit?"

"Oh!" he said. "Devil Fruits give you special powers if you eat them. There's this one captain in the navy that can turn his body into smoke! Really the possibilities are endless… It's just a risk to eat them because it's really anyone's guess as to what power you'll get."

I scowled at the fruit. "Why would anyone want something like that if it's so risky?" I asked.

"Exactly the point!" he said, petting my head. "Well, it's a little late for you. Shouldn't you be going to bed?"

I looked to Mom and she nodded. "Yes," she said. "You should probably sleep. It's late."

I nodded and said goodnight to both of my parents.

* * *

It was in the middle of the night when my mom woke me up frantically.

"Maggie!" she whispered. "Maggie, wake up!"

I opened my eyes groggily and sat up. "What time is it…?" I asked, rubbing my eyes and yawning.

"Never mind that," she said, looking behind her. She grabbed my hand and half-dragged me into the kitchen.

"Mommy…?" I asked. "What's wrong?"

She looked around frantically and sighed in relief. "I overheard your father saying he was going to eat the Devil Fruit…" she whispered.

"What's wrong with that?" I whispered back.

"Things would be very, very bad if your father gained immense powers…" she said. "He would try to take over the navy, and probably die out in the sea trying! No. I will not let him ruin his life over a greedy wish."

"What do you need me for, then?" I asked.

"You," she said. "You're going to eat the Devil Fruit. We'll keep it a secret from your father. He'll think someone stole it in the middle of the night."

I stared at Mom for the longest time. "No," I said. "You eat it. I don't want powers."

"You have to be the one, Maggie," she insisted.

"No!" I said. "I don't want too!"

"Maggie!" she said. "If I ate the fruit… It would be a waste of the thing. You have longer to live than I do."

"What…?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

I saw tears fall from her eyes. "I didn't want to tell you this…" she said. "But I've visited plenty of doctors and they all say the same thing… I have an incurable heart condition… I don't have long. You have to eat it!"

I felt tears drip down my face and I hugged her tightly. "Mommy… I don't want you to die… No! You're lying!"

"I'm afraid I'm not…" she said. "Maggie, please hurry. Before your father wakes up, you must eat it."

"Why would he wake up?" I asked.

"Like I said, I overheard him saying he was going to eat it," she said. She picked up the fruit and gave it to me. "Eat it in your room quickly. Even if it tastes disgusting, eat it all! Don't leave a trace of it!"

I nodded, accepting my mission and snuck quietly back into my room. I hid in my closet and looked at the fruit in the dark. I closed my eyes and put it in my mouth. I bit down.

The fruit was the most disgusting thing I had ever tasted in my entire five years of living, and that was counting baby food! I swallowed reluctantly and felt like I was about to throw up. I wanted to throw the rest away, but Mom had given me specific instructions! Hesitantly, I put the fruit back to my lips and finished the rest in one horribly awful bite.

I still felt nauseous as I went back to my bed. My stomach didn't really like me for eating the fruit.

But then, suddenly I had this weird feeling. I became aware of my newfound powers.

"The Tick-Tock Fruit…" I whispered to myself.

I went to sleep with my head spinning about my new powers.

* * *

I woke up when I heard yelling in the kitchen. It was Mom and Dad yelling at each other.

From what I could hear, Dad was accusing Mom of eating the fruit. Mom assured him that she didn't.

"Well then who could've eaten it, huh?!" he asked. "Magnolia?!"

"Maggie's got nothing to do with this!" Mom said. "It's obvious that someone stole it!"

"That's what you want me to think!" he said. "Magnolia ate it, didn't she?! You gave it to her because you didn't want me to have it!"

"That's not true!" she said desperately. "Someone stole it-"

I heard Dad's heavy footsteps come closer and closer to my room. I pretended I was asleep. The door to my room burst open and I felt Dad's strong hand grip my wrist and raise me out of my bed. I squeezed my eyes shut in fear.

Mom dashed into my room and screamed at him to put me down.

"You ate it, didn't you?!" he asked. "What is it?! Tell me, now!"

I knew I would have to lie to him. "I didn't eat it, Daddy…" I said, looking at him.

He looked pleased. "You're lying and I know it," he said surprisingly calmly. "You know how I know? Your eye is different."

Mom was staring at me, crying. "What…?" I asked. He set me down and I ran to my mirror. My right eye had a clock on it!

"What's the name?" he asked. "Tell me the name."

I shook my head and said, "No. It's a secret."

"MAGNOLIA!" he yelled furiously, picking me up by the wrist again. "Tell me the damn name!"

I cried in fear of my own dad. That's when everything stopped. Literally, the whole world stopped and I was the only thing moving. I was like I made everyone freeze. I stopped time.

I struggled out of his frozen hand, but it was no use. Time unfroze a couple seconds after. I panted from the taxing effects of stopping time.

"Just tell me the name!" he yelled.

"Maggie!" Mom said. "I'm so sorry!"

I cried even harder and struggled to get out of his hand.

"Just tell me!" he said. "Tell me and I'll let you down!"

I stopped struggled and seriously thought about it. "Tick-Tock Fruit…" I said.

He set me down and everyone stared at me. He walked out of my room and dragged Mom out with him. He locked the door and I started panicking.

_What was he going to do?!_ I thought.

I sat on my bed the rest of the day in fear he was going to come bursting through the door at any second.

When my worries exhausted my brain later that night, I fell asleep.

* * *

I woke up in a different place. I didn't even recognize where I was. Wherever I was, it was on the water because I felt swaying. I sat up and looked around. On the other side of the room, there wasn't a wall. There were only parallel bars, like I was in a jail cell.

Apparently, I had slept through my own father kidnapping me in the middle of the night and bringing me to his navy ship. I had a feeling I would never see my mom again.

I was five.

My dad came in moments later, seeing I was awake.

"Wh-where am I…?" I asked.

"My ship," he said. "You're going to be a small part of my crew now. You'll be the key to my victory."

I shook my head and said, "No… I don't want too!"

"You will," he said. "In due time, that is."

"I want to see Mommy!" I said. "Take me back!"

"Can't," he said. "I have my orders from HQ. We won't be going back for a long time, Magnolia."

I couldn't believe my ears. I didn't want to believe any of it.

"You see, Magnolia," he said. "I did some research on the Tick-Tock Fruit. Turns out the last person who ate it could stop time and everything around him, but still be able to move within the frozen time. I believe that you may have eaten one of the most powerful Devil Fruits that exist."

"No…" I said to myself. "I don't want this…"

"Too bad," he said. "You can't undo the effects of a Devil Fruit." He tossed me something small and black. "That's for your eye."

I picked it up off of the ground. It was an eye patch with a clock drawn on it.

"Put it on so people don't freak out when they see you," he ordered.

I tied the eye patch over my right eye. It was weird only being able to see out of one eye, but I got used to it eventually.

I wasn't officially part of the crew. Most of the soldiers thought I was just on the ship because Dad wanted me to be. No one was allowed to talk to me either. I had to find things to do own my own in my little prison. There was always a guard stationed outside of my room to make sure I didn't escape. I don't even think he knew why he was guarding me.

Dad ordered me to keep practicing and training myself to use my Devil Fruit powers. By the time I was eight, I could freeze time for about a minute and a half at most. He said he would start taking me on missions until I could stop it for at least three minutes.

He beat me every time I said I couldn't do it or refused to help him. Stopping time, to give an analogy, was like holding back a river on my own. It exhausted me every time I stopped it for more than a minute. Sometimes to be cruel, he'd even take away my meals to get me motivated, even though he knew how taxing it was on my small body.

It didn't take very long until I was able to freeze time for three minutes due to his violent methods, but it still exhausted me. That's when he let me out of my prison for the first time. He gave me a small, sheathed knife with a rope attached to it and said, "In case you ever get in trouble, use this." I tied the rope around my waist and moved the knife pouch to my side for easy access.

That's when we went on our first mission together. I hated every second of it. He handcuffed me to his arm so I couldn't run and he could move when I stopped time.

We did many of these so called 'missions' together. They were actually his attempts at making his way up the ranks by defeating many notorious pirates in the East Blue by using my powers. Most of the time, he would have to carry me back to the ship because I was too weak to stand from using too much power.

When I was ten, Dad received a letter saying that Mom had died.

He didn't even let me go to her funeral.

I was distraught for days and refused to eat or train. No one even tried to comfort me.

That's when I'd had enough. That very day I stopped just going along with whatever he said. I tried to escape every chance I could get. So much so, that Dad eventually stepped up my security to seven men guarding me.

I trained harder than before and sometimes forgot to eat because I was so focused. By the time I was eleven, I could stop time by a whopping ten minutes when I wanted too, but at the end of the ten minutes, I could barely move, let alone breathe.

I was twelve when I finally escaped. I had kept a small bag ready for times when I needed to make a quick escape. Inside was one change of clothes, my small knife, and two pairs of handcuffs with the keys.

The ship docked on an island called Syrup Village. Apparently there were complaints from villagers about battle sounds and blood on the north cove of the island. Dad was sent to check it out.

All of my guards were looking the other way when I stopped time in my room. While time was frozen, I grabbed my bag, unlocked my door from the keys supplied by one of the guards, and ran off the ship without anyone noticing me.

I took off running as fast as I could off of the north cover while panting. I kept running until I made it all the way to the south cove. I hid behind a tree when I saw that there were people there.

There was a blonde girl and a sheep-headed man standing in front of a ship. From what I could hear, they were giving the ship to a man in a straw hat, an orange haired girl, and a man with three swords. I also heard the word pirate mentioned…

_If these people are pirates, then they'll be going out to sea far away from any navy ship! _I thought._ And if they kill me, then I guess I'll be finally rid of my burden._

That's when I decided to hide in there ship.

I stopped time again and ran onto the ship. I found an empty barrel to rest/hide in. I started time again and waited patiently.

_I just want to ride along until their next stop, but if they noticed me before then, I could be in trouble… _I thought._ Hopefully, they won't even notice me!_

* * *

My hopes of the pirates not noticing me were short lived. About two days later, I sneezed and someone heard it.

"Zoro…?" I heard a girl's voice. "Did you just hear that?"

I heard something metal then a low male voice say, "Yeah. I heard it."

"It sounded like a sneeze," said the girl.

I didn't dare move an inch or even breathe. I was too scared to even begin to think about stopping time. I managed to move my hand slowly enough to pull out my small knife in case they actually found me.

"Someone else is on board," said the low male voice.

I could feel myself shaking in the barrel. _They're not going to find me… They're not going to find me…_ I thought.

I heard what sounded like metal sliding. I bit my lip and hoped they wouldn't find me.

"Come out now and I won't hurt you," said the man.

_But I'm too scared to move… _I thought.

"Ok, your choice," he said.

Within seconds, the top of the barrel was sliced off and the whole barrel tipped over. I spilled out of it and stood up as fast as I could with my knife in hand.

"Go get Luffy," the man ordered the girl.

She took off running.

The man had a sword in hand. He looked at my small knife and said, "Drop it."

I backed up away from him and said, "St-stay away…" I pointed the knife at him with two shaky hands.

He pointed his sword at me without fear and said, "Drop it."

I panicked, dropped the knife, and screamed. I stopped time and ran around the frozen man. I ran out of the room and saw the girl was about to come in with the straw hat wearing man.

I stumbled and fell, but I lost focus and time started again. I felt a little bit out of breath.

"What…?" I heard the man with the sword say. "So fast…!"

Within a millisecond, he was pointed his sword at me again. I was still on the floor trembling in fear and breathing heavily.

"What's going on, Zoro?" asked the man in the straw hat.

"I think we've got a stowaway," he said.

I stopped time again, despite my fatigue, and ran back into the room to pick up my knife. I ran up the stairs of the ship and panicked when I saw another person. He had a long nose and was wearing a bandana on his head. Panicking made me accidently unfreeze time again. This made me feel a little bit more short of breath.

I screamed in fright and ran around the person.

"How'd she get up there so fast?!" the man with the sword asked.

"Stop!" the straw hat wearing man yelled. All of a sudden, I was being picked up by a very stretchy arm. I squirmed and tried to get out of his grip, but it was no use. He set me down in front of the three of them. Soon, the one with the long nose joined them.

I was helpless and totally out numbered. The man with the sword pointed it at me and swiped my knife out of my hand with the tip of his sword. The rest of them just stared at me.

"No more of that," he said, throwing the knife on the ground behind him.

I had tears coming out of my eyes at that point. I was caught red handed.

"Our first stowaway is a little girl. What should we do, captain?" the man with the sword asked.

"Hmm…" said the man with the straw hat. "I don't know."

"Well think of something!" the girl asked.

"What's your name?" straw hat asked.

"M-M-M-Magnolia…" I stuttered.

"Are you here to steal my treasure?!" the girl asked. She looked furious.

I shook in fear and said, "No…"

"Then why are you here?" straw hat asked, tilting his head to the side.

"I… I just wa-wanted to get away… from the n-navy…" I said.

"Navy?" asked long nose.

"Why were you with the navy?" sword-man asked.

"I… I, uh… I don't want to t-tell you…" I said.

"Why not?" straw hat asked. "We won't tell anyone!" He smiled and laughed.

"I ate a Devil Fruit…" I said. "And they wanted to u-use it..."

"You're a Devil Fruit user?" the girl asked.

I nodded.

"Oh! Oh!" said straw hat excitedly. "What can you do? I'm a rubber man!"

"Luffy! Be serious!" said the girl.

"What?" he asked. "It's a question…"

"I bet its speed," sword-man said. "No other way she could've run that fast otherwise. I shook my head. "Then what is it?"

"I… I don't think I should tell you…" I said.

"Why is there a clock on your eye patch?" straw hat asked. "It's cool!"

"Um…" I said. "I don't know…"

"What should we do with her?" sword-man asked again.

"Are you a musician?" the straw hat wearing man asked.

I shook my head.

"Ahh… Too bad…" he said. "Well, anyway! I've made my decision!" he said rather loudly.

I gulped and wondered if this would be my watery grave.

Everyone stared at the man wearing a straw hat. Straw hat stared at me for a long time. I was sweating and shaking with anxiety.

Finally, the man said, "You can join our pirate crew and be our watchman."

"WHAT?!" everyone asked.

I was in complete shock. They were going to let me live! I had never expected this to happen.

"So what do you say, Magnolia?" straw hat asked. "Wanna join us?" He smiled mischievously and held out his hand. "Oh wait! On one condition. You have to tell us your Devil Fruit power someday."

Everyone stared at me. I nodded and saluted him. "Sir, yes, sir," I said.

The straw hat man laughed and said, "This is great! You've already got an eye patch to look like a pirate! Oh, by the way, I'm the captain, Luffy. This is Zoro," He pointed to the swordsman. "Nami," He pointed to the girl. "and Usopp!" He pointed to the long nosed man.

"Hi…" I said.

Nami was scolding me. "You're not getting my treasure," she said and then walked away.

Zoro and Usopp walked away.

"There's a telescope up there and everything," Luffy said, pointing to the crow's nest.

"Should I go up there now…?" I asked.

He nodded and said, "Yeah! Just holler if you see an island or a ship or something."

I nodded and he walked away.

I climbed up the rope ladder into the crow's nest, or the lookout station. Like Luffy had said, there was already a telescope there.

* * *

That's where I spent most of the day. Around noon, Luffy and Usopp found cannon balls and decided to test them out.

"OI!" Luffy called up to me. "Magnolia! See anything we can shoot?"

I quickly looked around and said, "Yeah, there's a column of coral off in the distance."

"Thank you," Luffy called back up to me.

Luffy fired the first shot, missing it completely. Usopp tried next, hitting the target directly. Luffy decided that Usopp would be the ship's sharpshooter.

Everyone else went inside the ship. I was still watching for any sign of an island or ship.

That's when I saw someone on a raft coming towards the ship. "Everyone!" I yelled. "Someone's coming!"

Everyone walked out, then dismissed the raft. I heard Luffy say, "Looks weak…"

I watched the man park his raft next to the ship and climb aboard.

"Guys…" I said. "He came on board!"

The man had a sword. He looked up at me and yelled, "Come on out, you pirates!" He started kicking some of the barrels on deck.

Luffy came out on the deck and asked, "What? What? Who are you?"

"Shut up!" the stranger yelled. "It doesn't matter who I am!" He sliced some of the railing with his ship and Luffy jumped out of the way.

"I've killed a countless number of pirates," the man said. I gulped and started wondering what I should do. "But a no name pirate like you dares to try kill my partner?!"

He took a swing at Luffy, who dodged again.

"What do you mean? Partner?" Luffy asked. "I don't know what's going on, but don't damage our ship!" he yelled. He picked up the man and set him flying to the other side of the ship.

Zoro walked out next. "Hey… Aren't you Johnny?" he asked.

"Who is it? Calling out my name with no respect!" the man said. The man sat up, seeing Zoro, and said, "Zoro-aniki!"

"So it is Johnny," Zoro said.

"Why are you here, aniki?" Johnny asked.

"Where's Yosaku? You're not together?" he asked.

"What? What?" Luffy asked. "You two know each other?"

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	2. A Restaurant and an Island

It turns out Zoro did know the man named Johnny, and his partner whom he brought with him on the raft. Yosaku was very sick and he didn't know what was wrong with him.

They brought Yosaku on board and I went down from the crow's nest with everyone.

"In the end…" Johnny said, holding back a sob. "His teeth fell out and his old wound opened up and started bleeding." He buried his face in his hands and said, "I didn't know what to do! So we were on the rocky island, but then… BOOM! A cannonball came flying from this ship."

Everyone's mouths dropped to the floor. Luffy and Usopp started apologizing profusely.

"Sorry doesn't cut it…" Johnny said. I gulped and took a gigantic step back. "Isn't that right, partner?" He started crying really hard over his sick friend. "Aniki… Is he going to die?"

Nami walked over and said, "Are you stupid?" She knelt down and looked at his tongue. Johnny started yelling at her, but she slapped him away from Yosaku. "Luffy, Usopp. We have limes in the storage, right?" They just stared at her. "Don't just stand there! Bring them here!"

Then ran away quickly, saying, "Yes, ma'am!"

They gave the limes to Nami and she squirted the juices of multiple limes into his mouth and on his face.

"It's scurvy," Nami said. "If we weren't too late, he'll be fine in just a few days."

"Re-really?!" Johnny asked. He seemed elated.

Seeing that the situation was being handled without my help, I went back up to the crow's nest to look out for ships and islands.

Soon, Yosaku jumped up and started dancing with Johnny, singing about how he was ok.

"Sorry for not introducing ourselves," they said together.

"I'm Johnny," he said.

"And I'm Yosaku."

"And we're…" they said, pausing for dramatic effect. "The pirate bounty hunter duo!"

"We used to be colleagues of Zoro-aniki," Johnny said.

"Glad to make your acquaintance," Yosaku said.

After Zoro and the other two chatted for about a minute, Yosaku suddenly fainted from not being fully healed.

* * *

Later that night, we were all in the kitchen with Yosaku resting off to the side on the floor.

"This is a lesson," Nami said.

"Yeah. There're pitfalls like this when you travel the sea for a while," Zoro said.

"Which means we need a cook on the ship to consider the distribution of nutrients using limited kinds of food," Usopp said.

It didn't really make sense to me, but from what I understood, the ship needed a cook in order to stay healthy.

"It's definitely a necessity," Nami said.

"A necessity, huh?" Luffy said, taking a bite of bread. "Ok, then! A seafaring cook!"

"What?" Usopp and Nami asked.

"Let's go find a seafaring cook!" Luffy said.

"Yeah!" Usopp agreed. "Then we'll be able to eat yummy food even on the ship!"

"Exactly!" Luffy said happily.

Nami nodded in agreement. Seeing that I had just joined, I felt a bit inferior to everyone else. I didn't think this decision included me.

"Well, if you're looking for a cook like that, there's a perfect place for that," Johnny said.

"Alright!" Luffy said excitedly. "Where's it?"

"It's close to the Grand Line, and there are rumors about the hawk-eyed man you've been looking for there," Johnny said.

Zoro gave a smirk and clutched his white sword.

"We'll head north-northeast!" he said.

* * *

Nami was told that I would bunk with her since I was a girl. She didn't seem too happy, but simply accepted it.

The next morning, I was up a bit earlier than everyone else and headed for the crow's nest to start my job. Since there wasn't really anything to sea except water, I started thinking about the crew aboard the ship.

Nami seemed nice, but she wasn't comfortable with me in the crew for some reason. Now that I look back, I suppose she thought I was going to steal her treasure.

I was completely terrified of Zoro. I think it was because he had three swords and, from what I could tell, he knew how to use them very well.

My thoughts were interrupted by Usopp.

"Oi, Magnolia!" he called up to me. "We're having breakfast, so come down before Luffy eats it all!"

"Ok!" I called back.

I climbed back down the rope ladder and went into the kitchen with everyone.

Luffy had already eaten at least three different slices of meat. I sat down next to Nami, it being the only place with an open plate, and grabbed an apple from the buffet style food display on the table.

I wasn't very hungry, despite not eating for at least two days.

"Is that all you're going to eat?" Nami asked me.

I nodded my head and said, "I trained myself to be able to go for five days without food on the navy ship."

Everyone's mouths dropped to the floor while I took a bite of the apple.

"That's amazing!" Luffy said, stuffing another piece of meat down his throat. "I wouldn't last a day without something to eat!"

Everyone ate and chatted happily a lot. I didn't really join in on any conversations. I still felt very menial compared to everyone else.

When breakfast was over, I set back to work up in the crow's nest.

Everyone came out on deck.

"Our destination is…" Johnny said. "The Sea Restaurant Baratie!"

After about thirty minutes of sailing and looking all round, I finally spotted the restaurant in my telescope!

"I see it up ahead!" I said.

Everyone cheered and stared out into the horizon, looking for it.

From what I could see in the telescope, it was a boat that was modeled to look like a fish. It wasn't sailing so I figured it was anchored in place.

When it finally came into view for everyone else to see, I came down from the crow's nest.

"What do you think, everyone?!" Johnny asked, feeling proud of himself.

"It's a huge fish!" Luffy said.

"How lovely!" Nami said.

"It's pretty cool!" Usopp said.

"Right? Just like I told you, right?" Johnny said.

All of a sudden, there was a huge honking noise and a ship pulled up next to us. My eyes widened when I saw the insignia on the sails.

"N-n-n-n-n-n-navy!" I yelled in fright.

I immediately ran into the kitchen and hid in the corner where I couldn't be seen by any windows.

Johnny and Yosaku hid behind the open door. Apparently, the captain on the navy ship saw the duo and they started getting angry and saying that they weren't captured by pirates.

Johnny even pulled out a handful of wanted posters and yelled, "Would small bounty hunters go after these guys?!"

Then, I heard a loud bang, like a canon shot, then a huge crash. Since I didn't feel any vibrations, our ship hadn't gotten hit.

A couple minutes later, Usopp came in and said, "The navy's pretty much left."

I nodded and came out of the kitchen. "I'm sorry for not seeing the navy ship… I apologize," I said.

No one really was paying attention to me. I realized Luffy wasn't anywhere on deck. Apparently, the cooks on the restaurant boat had taken him off our ship because he accidently damaged the boat.

_So that's what the bang and the crash was…_ I thought.

The navy's ship was still there, but there wasn't anyone on board.

* * *

We waited and waited for Luffy to come back. During that time, the bounty hunting duo repaired the broken railing form when Johnny cut it earlier. It was at least an hour before anyone thought something was definitely wrong.

"What's taking Luffy so long…?" Usopp asked.

"Seriously…" Nami said.

"Maybe they'll make him do chores for a month or so…" Usopp said.

"He should've made it the navy's fault instead of being honest!" Nami said.

"But honesty is always rewarding," I said. "That's what my mom always said."

"Yeah, but we're pirates," Nami said. "We don't have to be honest."

"E-Exactly!" Usopp said.

I coiled back and blushed. "O-oh…" I said.

_I guess they don't really like me all that much yet…_

"Maybe we should check it out…" Usopp suggested.

"Yeah," Nami agreed. "Zoro! We're going to see what Luffy's up to, wanna come with?"

"Sure," he said, getting up.

"Wh-what about me?" I asked.

"We don't need that many people… Plus the ship isn't that big, so… You stay here, ok?" Nami said.

I saluted her and said, "Of course, ma'am."

She looked at me funny just before the three of them set off to see what was happening with Luffy.

It was just me, and the bounty hunting duo on the ship, but they were playing cards together. There was no reason to go to the crow's nest if we were anchored. I really didn't know what to do all alone.

Four days passed and I had the overview of the situation. Luffy was being forced to work at the restaurant for a whole year because of the damage he inflicted on the restaurant.

I wondered if we would really have to wait a year for him to be free.

Usopp kept begging Luffy to talk to the owner to let him off the hook.

But that misty fourth morning, Don Krieg showed up at the restaurant. His ship was probably the biggest galleon I'd ever seen. But there was something weird about the ship. It was all tattered and broken, like it had been through a war.

Everyone on board started panicking, both inside Baratie and on the _Going Merry._

I didn't really know just who Don Krieg was at the time, but judging by everyone's tense reaction on the ship, I knew he couldn't be a very good guy.

That's when I had a feeling things were about to get precarious.

Zoro and Usopp went to the restaurant to see what was happening. They told Nami, Johnny, Yosaku, and me to stay on the ship in case things went badly.

Nami spent her time looking at a certain wanted poster, the bounty hunting duo still played cards, and I watched them quietly.

All of a sudden, Nami did something weird. She pushed Yosaku and Johnny off of the ship.

"Wh-what are you doing…?!" I asked.

She grabbed my hand and pushed me off the ship.

As I hit the water, something strange happened. I suddenly lost all of my strength and I couldn't move a muscle. I couldn't even move my arms to panic or even doggy paddle.

_I can't swim!_

* * *

I woke up on a wooden surface sputtering water out of my mouth. Usopp was sitting over me.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

I sat up and asked, "Where am I?"

"We're going after Nami," he said.

"But what happened?" I asked.

"Nami-aneki pushed us all off of the ship and then sailed away with it, but when you didn't surface, we figured you couldn't swim," Johnny said.

"Luffy-aniki told us to go after her," Yosaku said.

I nodded, but in doing so I saw Zoro. My eyes widened and I melted into my seat when I saw him. He was on the floor, wrapped in bandages. It looked like he was unconscious.

"He said to bring you with us because it would be dangerous at the restaurant," Usopp said.

I got as far away from Zoro as possible on the small ship and nodded. "Ok," I said. "Thank you for saving me, Johnny-san, Yosaku-san."

"No, problem!" they both said, giving me a thumbs up.

I looked to my right and saw my bag, which I picked up. I checked inside of it quickly to see if anything was missing. Thankfully, it was all there. My knife, clothes, and handcuffs. I sighed in relief, but I was still terrified of being within arm's length of Zoro. He frightened me down to the core, even if he was injured.

"Um… What happened to Zoro-san…?" I asked.

"He fought a man named Hawke-Eye Mihawk…" Yosaku said.

"A truly terrifying guy…" Usopp said. It looked like he was shaking in terror just at the mention of his name.

"Is… Is he going to be alright?" I asked.

"Yeah," Johnny said. "Aniki won't die so easily."

I was relieved that he would be ok, even if he scared me to death.

* * *

We followed the _Going Merry_ until it was out of sight. But, from the direction we were going and based on everyone's reactions, it wasn't a very good place to be.

My guess was further proved when all of a sudden, a shark came out of nowhere and almost swallowed Yosaku whole. We couldn't save him from the shark, but it looked like it wasn't killing him. They swam off into the distance and I hope at least he would be ok.

We arrived not long after at an island with an extremely tall building right as you entered.

"W-w-we're here…" Johnny said. "Arlong Park!"

I didn't really know what that was, but from his tone, it sounded bad.

"So this is the hideout of the fishman Arlong, who came from the Grand Line?!" Usopp said with much terror in his voice. "Is Nami really here?!"

Zoro finally woke up and I inched myself away from him as he sat up.

"Well, Nami-aneki was on the _Going Merry_, so let's first see if it's stop on this island or not," Johnny said.

I looked around and pointed to our ship. "There it is," I said.

Zoro stood up with the aid of his only sword left, the white one, and looked dead serious when he said, "We're busting in."

Everyone else was against the idea, including me; I just didn't want to say anything.

"Forget the tedious stuff. Luffy told me to bring her back," he said. "And I'm going to do just that, no matter who we're dealing with!"

"Wow…" I whispered to myself. "Brave…"

"Let's go!" Zoro said.

But before we could actually get going, Usopp and Johnny banged Zoro on the head with mallets, rendering him unconscious yet again. While he lied unconscious, Johnny and Usopp tied him up.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Are you kidding?!" Usopp said. "We're not going in there with all those fishmen!"

Zoro woke up. "What… What the hell?! Untie me!" he yelled.

I was too scared of him to assist, even though I wanted to untie him.

Usopp and Johnny were looking at a map to figure out where we were, which was on the east side on Arlong Park, Cocoyashi Village.

"Untie me!" Zoro demanded again.

"You've been hurt so bad, you're nearly dead!" Usopp said, seemingly enjoying himself. "Just take it easy and leave this all to me!" He stood up near the front of the boat and proclaimed, "I'll bring Nami back!"

"You're in high spirits, now that you know she's not in Arlong Park…" Johnny said.

I laughed because it was true.

"Pull the boat up to the _Going Merry_!" Usopp ordered.

We were about to dock the boat when Usopp spotted some fishmen close to the shore and hid in terror.

"F-f-f-f-f-f-fishmen!" he whispered to us. We all crouched down in hopes that they didn't see us. We quickly sailed past them.

Usopp and Zoro started arguing.

"What should we do now?" I asked after they finished arguing.

"Well, we'll just have to say we couldn't bring Nami back," Usopp said.

I gaped at how fast they were quitting.

"How… How can you just abandon her like that?!" I asked.

"Untie me, you idiots!" Zoro demanded.

All of a sudden, I heard a splash. Two of the fishmen on the dock jumped in and were heading straight for us!

I started panicking, well, we all did.

"Escape?" Usopp asked Johnny.

"Agreed."

They went over to the side of the boat and jumped in.

"Hold it, you two!" Zoro said angrily.

I started freaking out and saying, "But I can't swim! I can't swim!"

"Untie me, then!" Zoro said.

This was probably the worst possible situation to be in. I didn't know who I was more scared of, Zoro, or the fishmen.

That's when they surfaced and jumped onto the boat.

I screamed.

"Oh, so it's just a runt little human and a man," the bigger of the two said.

"Were you two banished from somewhere or something?" the smaller asked.

I was too scared to even think. Zoro looked furious as he said, "Yeah… I guess…"

"Ah, so these injuries are from being tortured," the smaller one said.

The bigger fishman looked at me and said, "Why did you get banished?"

I couldn't even muster words.

"Well, anyway, let's take them back to Arlong-san for now!" the bigger one said.

They tied me up next to Zoro, which I was freaking out about, and started sailing the ship towards the main part of Arlong Park.

"Open up the gates!" the small one yelled. "We've got some suspicious people."

We sailed into a place that looked somewhat like a resort. They untied both of us, only to bind our hands and walked us in front of the infamous Arlong.

I started crying silently. This whole situation was probably the scariest thing I had even been in.

"I'll ask you again. Just why have you come here?" Arlong asked us.

Knowing I wouldn't respond, Zoro said, "I already told you, we're looking for a girl, half-fish bastard!"

I gulped and knew that his words would definitely not go unpunished here.

"You have a big mouth for a lowly human," Arlong said. "I'll excuse you this time, but never say _half-fish_ again." It made me feel about an ounce better. "We fishmen are evolved humans who've gained the ability to breathe underwater. That makes us superior to you. Get it through your head that fishmen are the lord of all things! Defying us is basically defying the laws of nature."

All of a sudden, Nami walked in and said, "I'm sick of those ridiculous opinions of yours, Arlong."

Zoro and I were both shocked to see her.

"N-Nami-san…?" I asked.

"Don't look so stern, Nami," Arlong said. "You may be human, but you're an exception. You're a skilled surveyor and a prized member of the Arlong Pirates!"

"I have more smarts than you guys. It's only natural," she said.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Nami was supposed to be our friend, and yet she was talking casually with this fishman!

"Oi, Nami!" Zoro said. "What does he mean, _surveyor_?!"

"Oh, they're acquaintances of yours?" Arlong asked Nami.

"Don't be ridiculous. His crew was just my prey," she said cold-heartedly. "I swiped a whole load of treasure from these guys."

_No wonder why she was so paranoid about me taking her treasure… _I thought.

"So these are your true colors, huh?" Zoro said. He looked disgusted with her. "After you hated pirates so much before…"

"Surprised? It was all an act. Does this make it clear enough?" she asked. She turned to the side and showed us a tattoo on her arm. It was the symbol on the Arlong Pirates' Jolly Rodger. "I'm a pirate, plain and simple! And a leader of the Arlong Pirates!"

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	3. Luffy Finally Arrives

Arlong laughed at the two of us. "So you had them completely fooled!" he said. "This girl's like a cold-blooded witch! She'll even forget her own parent's death for money!"

I could see a sparkling of hatred in her eyes as he said that. But it was hatred towards us… I couldn't really put my finger on it, but I had a hunch that there was more to the story that what she was saying.

"I see…" Zoro said. "Thought, it's not like I ever trusted her to begin with. If she was a homicidal maniac, I wouldn't be too surprised."

"In that case, get the hell out of here. You're both an eyesore!" she said.

That's when Zoro did something weird. He jumped into the water with both of his hands tied!

_He's going to drown!_ I thought.

I couldn't even muster words to call out his name, I was so frightened.

I looked to Nami with a pleading look. She wasn't even looking at me when she kicked her shoes off and dove in after him.

I think everyone in the vicinity had their mouths on the floor. Nami helped Zoro when she was an enemy pirate?!

She brought him back to the surface within seconds.

"What do you think you're doing?!" she asked him.

He coughed up water and said, "No… What do you think _you're_ doing? You're a small fry who can't even watch one guy die!"

She yelled in anger, "Screw you!" and kicked him in the back. She made him stand up and said, "Mess with me anymore and you _will_ die!"

"I wonder…" he said.

"That's a lot of bandages you have," she said.

"Didn't have a change of clothes, so I used these instead," he lied.

He punched him right in his injuries. He fell to the ground in pain.

"Hey, Nami. What should we do with them?" Arlong asked.

"Lock them both up! I'll deal with them myself," she said.

That's when a fishman came in saying he'd seen someone on the island near Cocoyashi Village with a long nose.

_Usopp… _I thought._ Just don't get caught like us!_

With that, Arlong said he'd head out to Cocoyashi Village to try and find him.

And with that, Zoro and I were thrown into a jail cell, but they tied our feet as well as our hands.

"We've got to get out of here…" he said. "Do you think you can reach the rope on my hands?"

I stared at him with frightened eyes and shook my head.

"Dammit…" he said.

That's when the door opened to reveal Nami on the other end. She was holding a knife and was staring at me.

I gulped and shut my eyes tightly.

But what she cut wasn't me, it was my bindings. She cut Zoro free as well.

"Nami-san…" I said in shock.

"Just hurry up and escape," she said. "Before Arlong comes back."

She walked out of the cell, leaving the door open.

Zoro and I looked at each other with confusion.

_She actually untied us…?_

And with that, a couple seconds later, Zoro's sword and my bag were tossed in the cell.

We both picked up our belongings and stood up.

"Hey, you've got a knife in that bag, right?" he asked. I nodded. "You might wanna take it out… Things could get hairy."

I gulped, fished out my knife, and unsheathed it.

We walked out of the cell and into the main part of Arlong Park. A dozen or so fishmen were still there.

"Stay here," he said. "This won't be long."

"N-n-no," I said. "I'll… I'll wait by the gates."

He laughed at me and said, "Good luck getting there with only that knife!"

I stopped time and didn't bother taking him with me. I ran over to the gates without bumping into anyone and hid behind them. When I restarted time, I popped my head out from the gate and waved at Zoro.

His mouth dropped to the floor and he yelled, "How did you get over there?!"

I gulped because that meant the fishmen had heard him. I hid back behind the gate and within about five minutes, Zoro called over to me, "Hey, it's alright. You can come out."

I popped my head out from behind the gates and quickly scanned the place to see if he was telling the truth. When I saw all of the fishmen lying unconscious on the ground, I walked over to Zoro, who was sitting in Arlong's chair.

"So…" he said. "You gonna tell me how you got over there so quickly, or not?"

I gulped and shook my head in fear. "No…" I said. "Not yet, anyways…'

"Well, whatever…" he said.

I put my knife back into my bag and we both waited for something to happen.

"Um… Uh… Zoro-s-s-san…?" I asked. "Are your injuries ok?"

"Yeah, I feel fine," he said. "I could destroy a city or something."

I winced in fear and said, "Th-that's… good…"

* * *

Zoro started getting impatient, complaining Luffy was taking too long. "Oi, aren't you bored?"

I shook my head. "I have too many things to worry about…" I said.

He looked at me funny and said, "Like what?"

"W-well…" I said. "For one, Usopp-san could be dead, Luffy-san could never show up, and Arlong could be back any minute…"

Zoro sighed and walked away. I'm pretty sure I heard him say, "Kids…" under his breath.

Zoro walked by the fence next to the gate and started talking to someone. I wondered who it was, so I walked over to him.

I wasn't tall enough to see over the gate, so I only heard a voice.

"From the looks of it, you're human," said the voice.

"Y-yeah…" Zoro said.

_He must be talking to a fishman!_ I thought.

"A marine? Or maybe a guest?" the fishman asked.

"Guest…?" he asked. "Yeah, I guess."

I looked to all of the fishmen Zoro had just beaten and held back a laugh.

"Arlong-san's not here right now, is he?" the fishman asked.

"Nope," Zoro said. "Where'd he go?"

"Apparently, there's a long-nosed outsider running all over the place," he replied.

_Usopp is alive! What a relief…_

"They locked up his friends here and went to Cocoyashi Village to get this other guy," the fishman said.

Zoro hopped on the fence, and then jumped down to see the fishman. Zoro said, "Are you coming?"

I quickly ran around the fence, careful not to fall in the water and stood next to Zoro. The fishman was an octopus-man.

"How do we get to Cocoyashi Village?" Zoro asked.

"Oh, there are two of you!" said the fishman. "Get in." He pointed to a floating pot in the water. "You're both guests. I'll take you there, swordsman and little human.

Zoro helped me into the pot, and then got in himself. I was very nervous of being so close to him. The octopus fishman swam us over to Cocoyashi Village and we both got out of the pot. Zoro thanked him and he swam away.

"What a stupid guy…" Zoro said.

"Um… Zoro-san?" I asked.

"What?"

"Wh-what are we doing here?" I asked.

"We're gonna save Usopp," he said.

"Oh…"

"Come on, keep up with me," he said. He started running and I followed after him.

Whenever he got too far ahead, I'd stop time for a brief second to catch my breath and then catch up to him. The only downside to this was that stopping time made me even more fatigued than I would be.

"Z-Zoro-san…" I called. "Can we stop… for a bit?" I put my hands on my knees and took deep breaths.

I heard Zoro sigh as he walked next to me. "Jeez…" he said.

When I caught my breath, we walked into the village. Zoro started asking around. It turns out that Usopp was just captured and taken to Arlong Park…

"We were just there…" I mumbled to myself. "I could save him if we were there…"

"He's surely dead by now!" said a villager.

"Damn…" Zoro said. He took off running.

"W-wait, Zoro-san!" I yelled. I ran after him and eventually caught up to him via time stopping.

"Woah!" he said while we were running. "You catch up fast!"

I panted while saying, "I guess you could call it… a talent…"

There was a huge boom close by. Zoro and I stopped running.

"What was that…?" he asked.

We looked to our left and saw a small ship coming right for us. But it wasn't just any ship! Luffy, Yosaku, and someone I didn't recognize were on board!

"Yo! Zoro, Magnolia!" Luffy said.

Before I knew what was happening, Luffy's arms had stretched to pick both of us up. He set us down onboard.

Going full-speed-ahead, the ship crashed into a cliff. However, before it crashed, I stopped time and jumped off board before I could die or get seriously injured.

Zoro was definitely not amused. He burst up out of the rubble yelling, "What the hell are you guys doing?!"

Luffy dusted off his straw hat and said, "What do you mean? We're here to get Nami. Have you still not found her?" He dusted his clothes off and said, "Oh yeah! What about Usopp and Johnny?"

"Um… Usopp-san was captured," I said. "And I have no idea where Johnny-san is…"

"Usopp!" Zoro said. "That's right! There's no time to lose!" He took off running.

"What happened?" Luffy asked.

"He was caught by that bastard Arlong!" Zoro said, still running. "We gotta hurry before he's killed!"

That's when Johnny came walking awkwardly towards us. He was sobbing for some reason.

"He was killed," Johnny said.

"What…?" I asked, covering my mouth in horror.

Johnny fell to his knees. "We're too late…" he said. "Usopp-aniki is dead! He was killed! By Nami-aneki!" He went on to say horrible things about Nami that I just didn't want to hear.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing… _Nami killed Usopp?! There was no way that was true! I don't believe it!_

Apparently Luffy didn't believe him either. He grabbed Johnny by the collar and shouted at him. "HEY! Say that again! I'll kick your ass!"

I didn't think someone as happy and carefree as Luffy could get so angry… It was almost terrifying to see him that mad. I took a couple steps back.

"Stop, Luffy. This has nothing to do with Johnny," Zoro said.

"If you don't wanna believe me, then don't!" Johnny said. "But I saw it with my own two eyes! She killed him-"

"Quit saying that kinda stuff!" Luffy yelled. "Nami would never kill Usopp! We're friends!"

"B-but, I-"

I gasped and saw Nami standing a couple feet away from us. "Who're friends, Luffy?"

"Nami!" Luffy said happily. He let Johnny go and ran over to her.

"Why are you here?" she asked coldly.

"What're you talking about? You're our friend! We came to get you!" he said.

"You're all a big problem," she said.

"Nami?" he asked.

"Friends?" she asked. "Don't make me laugh! You're just a pathetic bunch of people cooperating with each other."

"Damn you!" Johnny yelled. "You killed him! I saw it with my own eyes!" He choked back a sob and said, "How dare… How dare you kill Usopp-aniki!"

"So what?" she asked. "Why not kill me as revenge?"

"What?!"

"I'll tell you this much," she said. "Right now, Arlong wants to kill Roronoa Zoro and his men because Zoro just had to be stupid. No matter how monstrously strong you guys are you can't beat Arlong. If you hang around this island, you will be killed. Not that it matters to me, though…"

I didn't believe anything she said. I could feel like something was behind her behavior and I couldn't believe that she killed Usopp. But, it felt like she was warning us to go away before we all got killed as well. From what I could tell, Arlong did seem incredibly strong.

Zoro and the man I didn't know started arguing.

"This is no time for you two to be going at it!" Yosaku said.

"That's right," Nami said. "If you're going to fight, could you do it off the island? Don't butt any more into this land's affairs, stupid outsiders. Or do you still not get it? The only reason I got close to you was for the money! Now that you're flat broke, you have no charm whatsoever!" She sighed and said, "You can have your ship back, just go find a navigator somewhere else! Go look for your One Piece, or whatever. Just get the hell out of here!"

"Nami-san…" I whispered.

"Goodbye," she said firmly.

"Nami…" Luffy said, shocked. He suddenly fell over. "I'm going to sleep."

"Sleep?" Yosaku asked.

"In this situation?! And right in the middle of the road?" Johnny asked.

"I don't plan on leaving the island, and I'm not interested in what's happening on the island. And I'm a little sleepy." He yawned and fell asleep.

Zoro facepalmed and I was slightly impressed that he could fall asleep so quickly.

Nami suddenly turned furious. "Fine, whatever!" she screamed. "Go ahead and die!" She ran away without another word.

And with that, we didn't really know what to do.

The man I didn't recognize walked over to me and said, "Hello, mademoiselle. My name is Sanji." He smiled at me.

"Uh… Um…" I stuttered. "Hi… I'm Magnolia…"

"What a beautiful name for such a pretty girl!" he said.

Zoro hit him on the head with his sheathed sword. "Knock it off, Sanji!"

"What?" he asked.

Yosaku and Johnny insisted that we run away, but Zoro was insistent that we stay. I have to admit, I really didn't know what to do.

But then, I decided that I would look for Usopp!

"Um… Zoro-san?" I asked. "Is it alright if I look for Usopp-san?"

"He's dead!" Johnny said.

"But I don't believe that!" I said.

"Yeah, whatever," he said.

"I'll accompany you!" Sanji said.

I shook my head. "No, I'll be alright by myself."

Zoro laughed. "You're just a kid! Sanji, go with her," he said.

"Don't be so mean to Magnolia-chan!" Sanji said.

"No," I said. I admit, it did offend me, but I just let it go. "I can go by myself. I'll be alright, I promise."

And with that, I stopped time and took off running down the road until I couldn't see them anymore.

I accidentally ran into him, literally. He knocked me over while we were both running.

"M-Magnolia?!" he asked.

"Ow…" I said as I stood up. I looked up and saw Usopp. "Usopp-san! I knew you weren't dead!"

"Oh… You heard about that?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah!" I said. I dug inside my bag and took out one pair of my handcuffs. I strapped it on my wrist and said, "Give me your wrist."

"Why…?" he asked, holding it out.

"We'll get back to the others faster this way," I said, clicking it shut.

He looked at me funny and asked, "What are you doing…?"

I stopped time and said, "Just walk."

We started walking together, back to the others.

"How is this faster?" he asked. "Nothing's changed except you handcuffed me."

I laughed and said, "Oh, it's a bother to explain it now. Sometime later, ok?"

"I guess…" he said.

"So, Nami-san didn't kill you," I said. "I knew it!"

"No," he said. "She saved my life! She pretended to stab me, but she really just stabbed her hand and I played along and fell into the water!"

"Wow!" I said. "I knew Nami-san wouldn't do something so horrible!"

We approached the others and Usopp said, "Hey, guys! I'm alive."

"They can't hear you…" I said.

"Why not?" he asked. He looked closely at the others and saw that they weren't moving. "What the…?"

I uncuff-ed Usopp and he froze as well. I put away the handcuffs and unfroze time.

"Woah!" Zoro said. "When did you get here?!"

"Just now," I said.

Usopp was looking at me strangely and I smiled. "What the…?"

"You're alive!" Zoro said.

"See, I told you!" I said.

Zoro woke Luffy up. There was a lot of yelling because he was so happy to see Usopp.

"Johnny was talking nonsense after all!" Luffy said.

"No… In a way, it's not a lie…" he said. "But, it's actually the opposite! Nami saved my life!"

He proceeded to tell everyone about the heroic thing Nami did to save him.

_She's only acting badly, but she really does care about us_! I thought. _I knew it! She can't be a bad person!_

"So, what do we do?" Zoro asked. "Do we storm Arlong Park?"

"H-hold on! We gotta find out what the story with Nami is first!" Usopp said.

"It's no use, either way," said a woman behind us. "No matter what you guys do, Arlong's rule won't come to an end.

"Nojiko!" Usopp said.

"Who's she?" Luffy asked.

"Nami's big sister," Usopp said.

Sanji suddenly acted funny and said, "N-Nami-san's older sister?! No wonder she's so beautiful!"

"What do you mean it's no use?" Zoro asked, ignoring Sanji.

"Please, don't get involved with this village. Leave Nami alone. I'll explain the circumstances," Nojiko said.

"You mean why she joined Arlong's group?" Usopp asked.

"Yeah," she said. "You'll feel like leaving the island once you hear it."

"Alright, let's hear this reason or whatever, then," Usopp said.

"I'll pass," Luffy said.

We all looked at him funny.

"I don't care about her past," he said, walking away.

"Where are you going, Luffy?" Sanji asked.

"For a walk," he said.

"You're not going to listen?" I asked.

"No," he said simply. "I'll pass."

"Well, don't mind him. That's just how he is," Zoro said. "We'll hear you out, though I doubt it'll change anything."

Just after saying that, he fell asleep. I really didn't care about what was happening on the island. I just wanted to get back sailing as soon as possible. Arlong was a scary guy and I didn't want to wind up dead.

"Umm… Luffy-san?" I called after him. He stopped and turned around. "Can I come with you?"

He smiled and said, "Sure!"

I ran up to catch him and we started walking.

* * *

I felt walking with him was a little awkward, but I doubt he thought it was.

"So, Magnolia!" he said. "You said you ate a Devil Fruit when we first met! What is it? You promised me you'd tell me someday!"

"I guess I could tell you now…" I said. "It's called the Tick-Tock Devil Fruit."

"Ooh!" he said. "Is that why your eye patch has a clock?!"

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I didn't really pick it out myself," I said. "My dad gave it to me."

"Wow, he must be nice!" he said.

I shook my head. "He's the one I wanted to escape from," I said. "He's a navy officer and he wanted to use my powers to work his way up the ranks in the navy."

"What exactly can you do?" he asked.

"Stop time," I said. "So far, my record is ten minutes and twelve seconds!"

His mouth dropped and he gaped at me. "WOW!" he said. "That's amazing!"

"I didn't really want to tell you, because I thought you'd want to use my powers too…" I said.

"Why would I do that?" he asked.

"I don't know…" I said. "Just me being a worry-wart."

Up ahead, I saw our path being blocked by three fishmen. One of them was the octopus one! I gasped and hid behind Luffy.

"Oh? So those are fishmen…" he said.

"That one's seen me before…" I whispered. "The octopus one!"

"Cool!" he said.

"No!" I whispered. "Hold on…"

I stopped time and ran around them before they could notice me and hid behind a tree ahead of them.

I started time back up and Luffy just walked past them like they were ordinary people.

"Oi, wasn't there two of them…?" asked one of the fishmen.

"Might've been our imagination…" said the other.

"Oi, wait!" said the octopus one. "Stop!"

Luffy turned around and said, "Huh? You called?"

"Who are you?!" he asked. "What're you doing on this island?!"

"What does it matter to you?" he asked.

"Ye-yeah… You have a point," he said.

"I'm Luffy. I'm taking a walk," he said.

"A walk?" he asked. "Have fun!"

I was very concerned about how stupid that fishman was. It could almost be hazardous to his health at this point.

"Where are you headed?" asked one of the other fishmen.

"Heck if I know," Luffy said.

When they finally went away, I stopped time and went back to Luffy, panting.

"Wow, that was close…" I said.

"Why're you out of breath?" he asked. "Nervous or something?"

"No," I said. "Stopping time takes a lot out of me..."

"Ah," he said. "But still, it's pretty cool how you can just appear and disappear in seconds to me, but it's like, a minute to you!"

I said, "Yeah… I guess I never thought about it that way." I laughed and said, "It must look really funny, now that I think about it!"

"Yeah, it is!" he said. "It's all like, _pop_! And then you're gone! And then, _pop_! And you're back again!" He laughed.

It was fun, talking with Luffy. I was convinced that, by talking to him, he could make anyone laugh.

We walked and chatted as we entered the village. That's where we saw a man escorting the navy somewhere.

"N-n-n-navy…?" I whispered.

I quickly hid behind Luffy as they walked past us.

"Why does that old guy have a pinwheel on his head…?" Luffy asked.

"I don't know, but it looks kinda funny!" I said.

We continued walking through the village. That's when Luffy said something that stunned me a little.

"Say, Magnolia," he said. "Can I call you Maggie?"

My eyes widened and I stopped walking.

He stopped and asked, "Something wrong…?"

"No," I said. "It's just that my mom used to call me that all the time…" I took a deep breath and smiled. "Yeah, I guess you can call me Maggie."

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	4. Battle for Nami!

Luffy and I sat down under a palm tree to get some shade from the hot sun. Even though it wasn't much, it was very refreshing.

Luffy was still hung up on the man with the pinwheel hat.

"But it was so cool, you know?" he said.

I sighed and said, "I guess… I mean, it's funny looking, but I guess it's cool."

He thought for a while and said, "Oh, I just thought of a cool move!"

All of a sudden, people in the square were screaming for a doctor. I saw Nojiko, Nami and the man with the pinwheel hat in the middle of the huddle. It seemed like Nojiko was the one that was injured.

Luffy and I got up and walked over to them. "Yo, Nami!" Luffy said. "What's up? Need help with anything?"

I could sense that Nami was either extremely mad, or extremely sad. My guess was both from her reaction.

She turned around and stared at us. "You're still here?!" she yelled. She grabbed Luffy by the shirt and yelled, "This has nothing to do with you! Leave the damn island already!" She threw him to the ground and ran away.

"Luffy-san!" I said, helping him up.

He went to go sit back under the palm tree. "What's _her_ problem?" he pouted.

"Maybe it has something to do with the story Nojiko was going to tell us…" I said.

"Well, whatever…" he said.

That's when the villagers started getting very loud. Most of them even were holding pitch forks. I wondered if they were about to mob Arlong Park.

_Why would they do something like that?_ I thought. _Surely they know how strong the fishmen are… Right?_

I looked to Luffy and said, "Hey…" But he was asleep. I sighed and sat down next to him. "Well, no matter…"

That's when Nami came running back to the village. I couldn't really hear what she was saying, but from the looks of it, she was trying to calm everyone down.

I don't think her words worked, considering that they headed off in the direction of Arlong Park anyway.

Nami fell to her knees and started crying. I nudged Luffy to wake up. I had to literally slap in order to wake him up.

He stood up and asked, "What?"

I pointed to Nami who was actually stabbing herself in the arm by now.

Luffy's face turned dead serious. He walked over to her and I followed. He stopped her from hurting herself anymore and threw the knife on the ground.

"Luffy…" she said. "What do you want?! You don't even know anything! You don't even know what's happened on this island the past eight years!"

"Yeah. I don't know," he said simply.

"This has nothing to do with you!" she said. "I told you, leave the damn island already!"

"Yeah. You told me," he said.

She started throwing dirt on him and screaming, "LEAVE! I don't need you! Leave! Leave! Leave! Leave!" She started sobbing and looked to Luffy with helpless eyes, "Luffy… Help me…" she begged.

He took off his hat and gave it to her. He walked a little ways away and stuck his arms in the air as he yelled, "Of course I will!"

That's when I noticed Sanji, Zoro, and Usopp were all sitting nearby. Luffy walked over to them with a dead-serious expression on his face. "Let's go," he said.

Everyone stood up and said, "Yeah!"

"Maggie, stay here with Nami," Luffy said.

I saluted him and said, "Aye, aye, captain!"

They walked away. I knelt down next to Nami and said, "It's going to be alright. Luffy and the others will help you, I promise."

"Yeah…" she cried. "I know they can."

"Do you want me to clean up your wound?" I asked.

"Y-yeah, sure…" she said. "The clinic is just down the street, but the doctor is storming Arlong Park."

"I can do it," I said. "I had to do this kinda thing loads of times on the navy ship!"

I helped her up and we walked over to the clinic and I looked around for some bandages. Once I found them, I set them beside her and cleaned out the wounds. I wrapped her arm in the bandages tightly to stop the bleeding.

"There!" I said. "You're all done!"

"Thank you, Magnolia," she said, still crying a little.

"You can call me Maggie," I said, smiling.

She gave me a weak smile and said, "Alright then, Maggie-_chan_!"

I'd never really been called that before, but it sounded cute. I liked it!

"Then you can call me Nami-chan, too," she said.

I saluted her and said, "Roger that, Nami-_chan_!"

We laughed about it for a while. I was glad I got to cheer her up a little.

* * *

"Hey, Maggie-chan…" Nami said. "Can we go to Arlong Park? I kinda want to watch the fight."

"Yeah sure," I said. "I kinda wanted to watch it, too. Let's go!"

We both walked to Arlong Park. There was a large crowd outside one of the gates to get in.

"Arlong!" Nami yelled.

I saw Zoro and Sanji on the ground. They looked like they had been defeated. But where was Luffy?

"What did you come here for?" Arlong asked Nami. "I was just about to crush some pirates.

"I came here…" she said, "to kill you."

He laughed. "You've tried that dozens of times before! Were you able to kill me then?" he asked. "You must be completely aware that you mere humans can't kill me. Now, listen. I won't kill you and you can't escape from me. You'll be our surveyor forever. But, as you know, I am a good-natured man. If possible, I want you to be our surveyor of your own free will. So! How about this? I'll kill everyone here except you. But if you happily come back to the Arlong Pirates and draw sea charts as one of the leaders, I don't mind letting those people from Cocoyashi Village live. But I can't let these guys live, oh, and you two, runt." He was looking straight at me. I gulped. "They went too far. The question is who you'll be with." He paused. "Either take my side to let the villager live, or take the weakling's side and try to fight me while everyone else dies. Your choice. But from the look of these guys, it's pretty obvious it'll be a tragedy for you. Not to mention the runt looks like the weakest one." He paused again. "Nami… Are you _my_ friend? Or… _their_ friend?"

The villagers behind us were in an uproar about how unfair the choice was.

Either way I died, so I just hope she would at least let the villagers live instead of everyone dying.

But, it triggered something in me I'd never felt before. It was either an adrenaline rush or a wave of stupidity, but I wanted to go down fighting, since I was probably going to die anyway.

_Might as well go down fighting…_ I thought.

I dug around in my bag and pulled out both of the handcuffs. I latched one on each wrist and tightened them. I took a deep breath and unsheathed my knife.

"Oi, what're you doing, girl…?" I heard someone say behind me.

Nami turned around to face all of us and said, "Sorry, everyone! Please die with me!"

I stuck up a fist into the air and yelled, "Yeah!" along with everyone else.

But then, there was a sudden burst of water from somewhere.

"Could it be…?" Yosaku asked.

"Luffy-aniki!" Johnny and Yosaku cheered together.

"Luffy-san?" I asked.

Both Sanji and Zoro stood up, even though I thought they were defeated.

"Thirty seconds!" Zoro said. "I won't last longer than that!" He shoved his white sword in his mouth and looked up at Arlong.

This weird feeling came over me and I rushed out to help them. "I'll double that time!" I said to Sanji.

"Maggie-chan?!" I heard Nami call. "What're you doing?!"

"I'm going to fight!" I said.

Zoro looked at me and smirked. "Ok, kid," he said. "Let's see what you've got!"

Sanji dove into the water.

Arlong just laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. "YOU?!" he asked. "Fight me?!" He laughed some more. "Humans can't defeat me, let alone children!" He laughed and laughed even more.

I bit my lip and said, "We'll see about that…"

Zoro stood up and sliced Arlong's cheek. He was panting wildly. His injuries must be near life-threatening by now!

"Tick tock!" I said. I stopped time and tried to stab Arlong with my knife, but his skin was too strong. I panicked and it unfroze.

Before I knew it, I was being flown into a wall. My stomach was hurting really bad… He'd knocked the wind out of me, but I stood back up and stopped time again. I was looking for a weak spot, if he even had any. Then, I thought… Gills! Except I wasn't tall enough…

"Dang it!" I said.

I tried jumping, but he was just waaay too tall. I sighed and knew that fighting was definitely not my thing. But I had gotten myself into this, and I was going to go through with it, no matter how stupid!

I started time again and Zoro was attacking Arlong.

"People with Devil Fruit powers are hated by the sea and loose the strength to even struggle, and then they die! If that brat's still alive, then that means someone's cheating in this game!" Arlong said.

_So that's why I can't swim… _I thought._ No one ever told me why._

"Cheating?" Zoro asked. "It didn't seem like a fair fight from the start."

"Well, at any rate, if there's a hindrance, I need to check on it," he said. "Out of my way."

Something came flying towards Arlong. "Egg Star!" I heard a familiar voice say. It was Usopp!

"I've got your back, Zoro, Magnolia!" he said from far away.

"Ok!" I said. "Roger that!"

"You don't honestly believe him?!" Zoro asked.

Turns out Usopp had beaten one of the leaders and Arlong was definitely not happy about that…

"You defeated… Choo?!" he asked.

"Hahaha!" Usopp laughed. "That's right! With my arrival, the fight comes to a climax at once! It heads into the final chapter!"

But that's when the octopus fishman got back up and said, "I won't let you have your way!"

"Hey, Arlong!" Usopp yelled. "Look this way!"

Arlong looked for a brief second before dismissing him as a threat. "Looks like you want to die first, Roronoa Zoro."

"No way I'll die," he said. "I'll break your proud nose!"

He immediately swung for Arlong's very long, pointed nose, but his swords couldn't even scratch it!

I gulped and said, "Tick tock…" which stopped time again.

_His nose… His nose!_ I thought.

From where Arlong was standing, if I reached up high, the highest I could, I could reach his nose! I took my knife and started cutting, trying to see if I could cut it off.

I wondered if it had been a minute yet and what Sanji was doing in the water.

When I wasn't getting anywhere with his nose, I gave up and started time again. I was very, very out of breath. Must've been at least five minutes I was trying to slice it!

"Stupid…" Arlong said, as if he knew what I did. "It's a proud nose because it's unbreakable."

"So that's why…" I said to myself.

"If you were at your full strength, you might've been able to give it a scratch at best."

It was already a one-sided fight and Arlong hadn't even done anything!

They began fighting: nose vs. three swords. And yet, Arlong was overpowering Zoro!

_I have to do something… _I thought. _But I need to catch my breath before I… SCREW THAT! Zoro! I need to help you!_

But then I realized that if I brought Zoro into frozen time via handcuffs… he wouldn't be able to use one of his swords!

_Dang it…_

"Tick tock!" I stopped time again and knelt down besides Arlong's foot. I put my knife up high, to get as much momentum as I could, and forced it down into his foot.

Or so I thought.

It didn't cause him to bleed. If anything, I had just poked him in the foot.

I looked at my knife and touched it sharp edge with my finger. It was definitely very sharp! Why wasn't it cutting?!

_Dang… His skin is waay too tough for my knife…_

I started time again, but I forgot to stand up.

"Huh…?" Arlong said, looking at me. "Get away from my feet!"

"Magn-" Zoro said.

And with that, he kicked me very, very hard in the stomach into the wall opposite of where we were. I hit the wall with so much impact, I couldn't even move. Not to mention the exhaustion I was feeling from stopping time so much.

I struggled to get up to at least my knees, but strength wouldn't come to me.

My stomach felt wet and sticky. I didn't even want to look because I knew there would be blood.

_I know this is… probably nothing…. compared to Zoro or Sanji… But I can't go on… any longer… I tried my best, Luffy… I'm sorry._

I passed out after that.

* * *

When I woke up, I felt much better. I heard screams coming from next door as I sat up. I sounded like Zoro. I looked around and saw that I was in the doctor's clinic from the time I bandaged Nami.

After the screams stopped, the doctor came in. "I see you're awake."

I nodded.

"You've got three broken ribs and one helluva bruise on your stomach," he said. "Just try and take it easy for the next couple days."

"Roger that," I said, saluting him.

I spent two days in the clinic while the whole island was partying. Luckily, when I was discharged, they were still celebrating the fall of Arlong Park!

Yes, Arlong Park had fallen and Luffy was the cause of it.

I was congratulated a lot by the villagers even though I really didn't do anything to help. Usopp had stacked at least a dozen tables on top of each other and started singing songs about himself. I didn't really see Nami or Zoro throughout the whole party. But Sanji was hanging out with some girls and Luffy was stuffing his face.

The party ended the morning of the first day and our pirate crew decided to set sail once more. The only thing missing was Nami. She hadn't shown up yet.

"Maybe she's not coming," Zoro suggested.

"Why not?!" Sanji asked. "You made another pass at Nami-san again, didn't you?!" he accused Zoro.

"Why would I do that?" Zoro asked.

Zoro and Sanji started arguing again. I smiled happily at everyone and laughed. "Nami-chan will come," I said. I climbed up the rope ladder to the crow's nest and took out my telescope. I pointed it in the direction of the town and saw her running to catch up.

But, I decided not to tell them. It was a surprise!

When everyone finally noticed her, she stopped running and yelled, "Get the ship moving!"

She full-out sprinted for us, dodging every single villager in her path. We set sail and it looked like she wouldn't make it aboard!

That's when she jumped from very, very far away, but somehow made it on board!

She smirked and partially lifted her shirt, letting a bunch of wallets fall out. I laughed and said, "She stole their wallets!"

She turned towards the village and kissed one of the bills. "Take care, everyone!" she said.

I looked through my telescope at all of the angry villagers and laughed.

"She's still the same…" Usopp said.

"Who knows when she'll betray us again…?" Zoro said.

Well, Sanji, Luffy, and I were all happy to have her aboard again!

"Bye everyone! I'll be back!" she called after them.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	5. Bounty on our Heads

I was up in the crow's nest as usual a couple days after we set sail from Nami's village. Usopp was trying to invent a new attack called Tabasco Star and Nami had just gotten her morning paper. There wasn't really anything around at all so I was getting bored.

Nami started complaining to Usopp about the rising expenses of the newspaper. I sighed and surveyed the area again with my telescope.

_Still nothing… _I thought.

All of a sudden, Sanji started yelling at Luffy, who was trying to steal one of the tangerines off of Nami's tree's she took aboard the ship. They were right under the crow's nest. It made my job a little more pleasant to smell the citrus aroma of the fruits.

Everyone was relaxing when suddenly two flyers fell out of Nami's newspaper.

That's when everyone started freaking out.

I rushed down the rope ladder to see what was going on. "What is it?" I asked.

Luffy started laughing mischievously as he held up a wanted poster with his name and a thirty million Berry reward at the bottom.

I couldn't understand why he was laughing. This was a very bad thing!

"We're wanted criminals now!" he laughed.

Usopp noticed that the back of his head was in the picture as well. Sanji was mad they he wasn't featured in the picture. He started sulking off to the side.

Luffy was still laughing as he yelled, "Let's rush into the Grand Line, men!"

"Um… Nami-chan…? Why is he laughing? Isn't it bad?" I asked.

She sighed and said, "Yes, it is." She rolled her eyes at the idiotic crew and said, "You guys don't understand the seriousness of the situation! This means our lives are in danger now! This isn't the time to be taking it easy and relaxing in the East Blue…"

That's when Sanji noticed something on the floor. It was another piece of paper.

"Hmm…?" he said. "What's this?"

Usopp walked over to see what it was. His mouth dropped to the floor. "Uh… M-M-M-Magnolia…"

"Yes?" I asked.

Sanji flipped over the piece of paper so that everyone could see it.

It was a picture of a girl with shoulder length black hair, an eye patch and a brown eye.

"That's funny," I said. "It kinda looks like… me." My eyes grew wide when I realized it _was_ me. "Oh… it is me."

The poster read, 'Missing child, Magnolia F. Last seen in Syrup Village. If seen, please contact Navy Headquarters. 3,000,000 Berry reward.'

I just stared at the poster. "He knows I'm gone…" I whispered to myself, almost horrified of what was on the poster.

"Woah…" Nami said. "Looks like the navy really does want you. Three million Berries…"

"Are you ok, Magnolia-chan?" Sanji asked me. "You look a little pale."

"I'm fine," I said. "I just don't want to go back…"

Luffy smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, Maggie! You're our friend. We won't let the navy take you!"

I smiled back and said, "Thanks. That makes me feel better!"

"Yeah!" Sanji said. "I won't let anyone near you, Magnolia-chan!"

* * *

A couple minutes later, I saw something off in the distance. I squinted at the tiny figure pulled out my telescope. With the image enlarged, I saw that it was a navy ship.

"Navy ship!" I yelled. "There's a navy ship on the starboard side about…" I quickly estimated the distance and came up with, "five kilometers away!"

No one really seemed to care.

_I wonder if they heard me…_

"Umm…?" I asked. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Yeah, loud and clear," Sanji said.

No one did anything. We just kept sailing towards the ship.

When it was parallel to us, the man on board was someone they'd seen before. The ship quickly turned around and sailed next to us.

I held my breath in anxiety and turned away from the ship so that they wouldn't see my face.

The rest of the crew seemed nonchalant about it.

I was praying that they wouldn't notice the back of my head.

_Please don't be dad's ship… PLEASE don't be dad's ship!_ I thought.

But when the captain of the ship started yelling about how Luffy was under arrest, I realized it wasn't dad's voice. I relaxed a bit.

But that was before I heard the sounds of a cannon being aimed. I cringed and braced for the impact, which didn't come. Zoro had cut the cannon ball in two!

"Don't bother people while they're napping…" he warned.

"There's plenty more where that came from!" the captain said. "Fire! Fire!"

The cannoneer went to take a second shot, but the cannon exploded instead. They took a couple seconds to dust themselves off before ramming their ship into ours.

"Damn brats! How dare you mock a former Navy HQ Lieutenant!" said the captain. "We'll just have to fight you hand-to-hand! Come on, men!"

They boarded our ship, but I wasn't very concerned after I remembered we had two Devil Fruit users, a thief, a swordsman, a sharpshooting liar, and a kicking cook.

I actually kinda felt sorry for the navy people. But, in any case, they were the navy. I curled up in a ball in the crow's nest and hid my face in my knees.

The 'battle' was over within seconds. They screamed like girls as they ran back onto their ship to escape the wrath of Sanji during meal time.

A couple minutes later, the navy ship had vanished from sight and Sanji called from the kitchen, "Nami-san, Magnolia-chan! I've finished preparing your meals!"

I came down from the crow's nest in a hurry. Whenever Sanji called for meal time, it was always a race to get into the kitchen before Luffy. He always hogged the meat. But thankfully, Sanji always made extra for Nami and me.

After lunch was over, Nami called a meeting out on deck. She had a map on the floor and was looking at it intently.

"We're finally nearing the Grand Line…" she said. "It looks like the only way into it is through Reverse Mountain here." She pointed to the mountain on the map.

"What a pain…" Zoro said. "Can't we just sail straight into it?"

"Nope," Sanji said. "From what the geezer told me, it's the only way boats can enter."

"How come?" Usopp asked.

"Supposedly it's dangerous," he said.

"But how come?!" Usopp asked.

"I don't know!" Sanji said.

"Well," Nami said. "It's because-"

"Alright! Then let's head straight into it!" Luffy said.

"Are you even paying attention?!" Nami shouted.

Luffy laughed and said, "But it looks fun! Plus it'd be way cooler going straight into it!"

Nami sighed and said, "Talking to you makes me feel like I'm going to go crazy…"

I chuckled. _Poor Nami…_

"Anyways, let's stop at an island first and get meat!" Luffy said. "Meat! Meat!"

Nami pointed to a small island on the map. "There's a famous city on this island called Loguetown."

"Ooh!" I said. "I've heard about that! Isn't that where Gold Roger was born and executed?"

"Yeah," Zoro said. "It's also called the city of the beginning and the end."

"The town where the King of the Pirates died…" Luffy said.

"Wanna go?" Nami asked.

"Yeah! I wanna see it," he said. "I wanna see the town where the man who got the One Piece was born and then died!"

* * *

We set our course for Loguetown early the next morning, the city of the beginning and the end!

I kept a close watch out for the special town, even though Nami told me we were pretty far away from it.

Zoro, Luffy and Usopp were playing tag just before breakfast. I'd only woken up a little bit after they started playing.

_How did they get Zoro to play tag…?_ I wondered to myself.

I covered my mouth and yawned as I approached the rope ladder for the crow's nest and climbed up.

Right as I climbed all the way up, Sanji said it was time for breakfast. I was a bit annoyed that I climbed up there for nothing, but I let it go and rushed down the ladder and into the kitchen.

"Say…" Nami said at the table. "What do you supposed happened to Buggy after that?"

I looked up at Nami and asked, "Who's Buggy?"

"A pirate who looks like a clown," she said.

"Who knows? Maybe he's at the bottom of the ocean?" Luffy said.

I wondered what happened to this Buggy to make him be at the bottom of the ocean…

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Zoro said as he walked into the kitchen. "Pirates are a stubborn lot, every last one of 'em. I hunted pirates for years. I can tell."

Luffy kept stealing food off of Usopp's plate, but Luffy stopped when he walked in.

"Not that it matters, but all of your food's gone, Usopp," Sanji said. He walked over to Nami and me and gave us a cup of yogurt with many delicious berries in it. "A special yogurt desert for two very special ladies!"

"Thank you, Sanji-kun," Nami said.

"Thank you, Sanji-san!" I said.

"YOU STOLE MY FOOD AGAIN, LUFFY!" Usopp yelled. "Give it back!"

But Luffy had already eaten all of it. I looked at my plate. I still had about half of my breakfast left plus a dessert.

"Usopp-san," I said. "You can have mine." I pushed my plate over to him.

He took it gladly and said, "Thanks, Magnolia!" He sneered at Luffy and said, "See, some people share food, while you just take it!"

"You never said it was yours!" Luffy said.

"It was on my plate, of course it was mine!" he yelled.

"Oh, why didn't you just say so?" Luffy asked.

"BECAUSE I WASN'T-"

"Oi, quiet down, you two," Sanji said, thumping them on the head.

"OW! Sanji!" Usopp complained. "That hurt, you bastard!"

Nami sighed and looked at me. "Boys…" she said.

* * *

The next day during lunch, Luffy had stolen Zoro's food, yet again. Nami and I barely ever engaged in conversation with people, we mostly just watched as the boys fought over the table and, occasionally, started fighting and throwing food only to be hit in the head with a frying pan by Sanji which didn't exactly make matters better.

This time, Zoro was so mad, he through a plate at Luffy. The only problem was, Luffy moved his head out of the way and I was sitting right next to Luffy.

What happened next was almost in slow-motion.

When Luffy dodged, Zoro gasped, Usopp and Nami looked horrified and Sanji was running over to me. I didn't realize what was happening, but when everyone started screaming for me to look out; I looked over and saw the incoming plate.

I panicked and my eyes grew wide. I didn't really know what I was supposed to do for that split second.

I shut my eyes and braced for impact rather than dodging, (which was a stupid thing to do now that I think about it).

But the plate never hit me.

After waiting for about ten seconds for the plate to hit me, I opened my eye. Everyone was gaping at me. I wondered what had happened, so I looked at the plate. It was floating in midair.

I smiled happily when I figured out what had happened. I moved my head out of the way and held my hand out to grab the plate as soon as it started moving again.

"Tick Tock!" I said.

The plate suddenly unfroze and flew into my hand. I handed it back to Zoro and said, "Here you go."

When he didn't take it, I just set it in front of him.

Everyone was staring at me.

"What…?" I asked.

"That was awesome!" Luffy said.

That's when I realized I had only told Luffy about my Devil Fruit powers.

"H-how did you do that…?!" Nami asked.

"That's right!" I said. "I didn't tell you guys yet… I ate the Tick-Tock Devil Fruit when I was five and now I can stop time." I bit my lip and sighed. "But I didn't know I could stop individual objects… Usually it's just me."

"T-then!" Usopp said. "Back when you found me and you and I were handcuffed!" I nodded. "That's why it was so quiet and you guys couldn't hear me!"

"Yep," I said. I pointed to my eye patch and said, "It's why I wear this."

"Wow, Magnolia-chan!" Sanji said.

Luffy stuffed a piece of meat in his mouth and said, "Can we see what's under it?" But it came out more like _Cah vee see wuffs wonda eet?_

Usopp coiled back and said, "Wait… is it gross?"

I shook my head said, "No… It's just a little… strange."

Luffy swallowed the piece of meat whole and said excitedly, "Ooh! Let us see! Let us see!"

"I… I guess you can…" I said. I flipped my eye patch up to reveal my other eye that had a clock in it.

I felt like I was a public spectacle for people to stare and gawk at.

"12:06," Luffy said. "That's what it says."

Nami looked at her watch and said, "Woah! It's a working clock!"

"I didn't know it actually worked…" I said, blushing. "At least I don't require batteries!"

Everyone laughed.

* * *

A couple days later, I finally saw it in the distance. Loguetown!

"Everyone!" I called excitedly. "I can see the island!"

"Really?!" Luffy asked, stretching his arm up to the railing of the crow's nest and coming up. I gave him the telescope and he looked through it.

"Ahh! There it is!" he said. "What island is it?"

"Loguetown!" I said. "Remember?"

"Oh yeah!" he said, hoping down.

Everyone came out on deck and looked out into the horizon to see the tiny outline of the big island. I climbed down the rope ladder to join everyone.

"Is it a big town?" Sanji asked.

"From what I heard, yeah," Nami said.

"Sounds like there might be a market with fresh ingredients!" he said.

"I'm gonna hit up the weapon stores," Zoro said. "Being stuck with one sword doesn't suit a Three Sword-Style user."

"In that case, I guess I'll check out some equipment shops!" Usopp said.

_I need some new clothes…_ I thought.

After all, I only had two pairs of clothes. One I wore daily while the other was a pair of pajamas I kept in my bag.

Everyone was getting really excited and couldn't sit still as we neared the island.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	6. Loguetown

"Wow!" Luffy said looking at the entrance arch of the town. "It's a huge town!"

"Used to be full of pirates on their way to the Grand Line," Nami said. "It has everything you could ever need!"

"I can support that," I said. "My dad and I came here once. We were about to go into the Grand Line, but then his orders were changed."

Everyone split off into their own directions. Usopp went to equipment shops while Sanji went to go look at the markets for food. Zoro went to go buy swords and Luffy took off sprinting to the execution platform.

That's when Nami reminded Zoro that he had no money.

"Want me to lend you money?" she asked. "Sure! But including interest, you'll have to pay me 300% of what you borrow!"

He sighed and walked away, muttering to himself.

"Hm… Guess he doesn't want to get another sword…" she said as she walked away.

I followed after her.

"Hey, Nami-chan?" I asked. "Can I stick with you?"

"Yeah, sure!" she said. "I was gonna go clothe shopping."

"Oh!" I said. "That's what I wanted to do, too!"

We found a couple of shops and tried some things on, but we really didn't find anything we liked until the third.

I found a new outfit that I liked and tried it on.

It was a pale yellow and blood red striped, long-sleeved undershirt, an orange tank top to go over it, a red skirt that was longer on one side than the other, a belt to match and cute shoes. (See cover of story for reference.)

When we both checked out, Nami actually offered to buy my clothes. I was really surprised because she was a little bit obsessed with money. I told her no, but she insisted.

Nami had a ton of clothes, so the checkout was taking a long time.

"So… Who runs this town?" Nami asked.

"Captain Smoker," said the lady in the store.

"Captain Smoker?" Nami asked.

"Yeah," the lady said. "He's one of the toughest guys from Navy Headquarters."

I gulped.

"This town used to be a hangout for pirates headed for the Grand Line," she continued. "But ever since he took over, every single pirate who's come into town has wound up in the slammer! His strength is amazing, not to mention he's a monster. They even say he has Devil Fruit powers…"

Nami gasped. "Devil Fruit powers?!"

The lady finished bagging our clothes and we set off for more stores. Nami handed me the bag with my things in it and said, "Here you go!"

"Are you sure you don't want me to pay you back…?" I asked.

"Well, you only bought one outfit and it was under fifty Berries… I'll let you off the hook this time, but this time only, alright?" she said.

"Thank you!" I said.

We walked past the Navy building and saw Luffy's and my posters on the wall. We looked inside and saw Zoro.

"Zoro's working for the navy?!" Nami asked. She looked to me and said, "We saw nothing…" We walked past the building quietly.

We continued walking for a while until I thought I should probably go change into my new outfit and get my bag just in case.

"Nami," I said. "I'm gonna go back to the ship real quick."

"Ok," she said.

I walked towards the harbor with my shopping bag in hand and kept my face down so no one would recognize me.

I climbed aboard our ship and went into the room Nami and I shared. I took out my new clothes and changed into then. I also swung my bag around my shoulder and departed from the ship.

I felt a bit safer with my knife in my bag. I'd be prepared if anyone tried to turn me into the navy.

As I walked through the town, looking for someone from our crew, I found a sword shop with a sign on the window that said 'Free Blade Sharpening! Anything under 75 cm.'

"Ooh!" I said, interested. "That could be handy for the Grand Line!"

Considering I'd never sharped my small knife's blade before, it was no wonder I couldn't cut Arlong.

I opened the door and took out my knife.

"Welcome-" said the shop owner. He looked at me funny and said, "What's a little girl like you doing in this shop of mine?"

I walked up to his counter and said, "I saw your sign on the window for the free sharpening." I unsheathed my knife and said, "This knife's about nine centimeters. Will you sharpen it for me?"

He took the knife and inspected it, looking at it from every angle and said, "This is a nice blade you've got here, but it's actually a dagger, not a knife. Knives are more for cooking."

"Oh…" I said. "Oops!"

"It's pretty dull. I'll take it back and sharpen it for you. Feel free to browse," he said, going to the back of the shop.

I started looking around at the various swords, spears, and daggers.

He came back a couple minutes later and handed it back to me. "Be careful with it," he said. "It's very sharp now."

"Thank you!" I said, smiling at my newly sharpened _dagger_. I exited the store, put it back in the sheath and then into my bag.

As I was walking, I spotted Nami with Usopp and Sanji carrying a huge fish. I ran over to them and said, "I found you guys!"

Sanji looked at me and smiled, "Oh, Magnolia-chan~ You look so cute in your new clothes!"

I blushed and said, "Thank you, Sanji-san."

"Come on… It's going to rain soon," Nami said. "We should hurry!"

"Rain?" Usopp asked.

"On a sunny day like this?" Sanji asked.

"Hurry!" Nami said, walking fast. I followed them, not really knowing where we were going. She opened up a compass-like device and said, "Woah… The atmospheric pressure is dropping fast! I've never seen such a bizarre drop before…"

The wind picked up and whistled through the town eerily. "Now that you mention it, I feel a strange wind…" Sanji said.

I began to feel uneasy. "It's like the weather's telling us something bad is about to happen…" I said.

"A storm is coming to this island," Nami determined.

"A storm?" Usopp asked.

"We'd better hurry back to the ship or we'll be in trouble," she said.

"Is it a pretty big one?" Usopp asked.

"Oi," said someone behind me.

"Zoro!" Nami said.

I gasped and turned around. Sure enough, Zoro was standing there. I back up a little towards Nami.

He looked at me funny, and then dismissed it. "Have you seen _him_?" he asked.

"Luffy?" Usopp asked.

"Yeah, we got separated," he said. "I also feel something strange… like… something terrible is about to happen…"

"M-me too…" I said, looking up into the sky. There were black clouds rolling in up above that was bringing an uncomfortable feeling in the wind as it blew through the seemingly quaint town.

That's when people started yelling that pirates were coming.

_We're kinda already here…_ I thought.

"It's Buggy the Clown!" someone said.

_Buggy…? Isn't that the pirate Nami mentioned the other day?_

"What?!" Nami asked.

"Buggy the Clown?" Zoro asked.

"An execution!" another person said.

"An execution is starting!" said a different somebody.

"Buffy the Clown will be executing Straw Hat Luffy!" said the first.

"L-Luffy-san?!" I said.

"Let's go!" Zoro said.

Sanji let go of the tail of the big fish and said, "Take care of this!" as he ran off with Zoro.

"We have to hurry too!" Nami said, taking Usopp by the ear.

I had trouble deciding who to go with… _Stay with Nami and Usopp on the ship, or help Zoro and Sanji save Luffy?_

I took off running after Zoro and Sanji. A peculiar wind pushed me along, as if it wanted me to fight.

"Oi, Magnolia-" Usopp called after me.

I didn't turn around, I only kept running. About twenty seconds later, I finally caught up to Zoro and Sanji.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Zoro said as we were running. "Go back to the ship with Nami!"

"No!" I said, already a smidge tired from running hard. "I'm helping you!"

"Ah! Magnolia-chan's gonna help us!" Sanji said.

Zoro sighed and said, "Whatever, just don't get yourself killed!"

"Not planning on it!" I said.

"I'll never let anyone hurt Magnolia-chan!" Sanji said.

It was already getting dark even though it was midday. I looked up and most of the grey and black clouds had come overhead. It felt extremely humid, as if was going to rain any second. The sky flashed with lightning and thunder followed, booming loudly after. The wind was picking up and I was scared to death of Luffy being executed. This fear made me run a little bit faster.

We finally made it to the square. Luffy was being held by a board on the execution platform by a man who I presumed to be Buggy the Clown due to his clownish attire.

"Stop the execution!" Zoro and Sanji yelled.

Zoro had already put his green bandana on his head and Sanji had his hands in his pocket. I dug into my bag, got out my dagger, and unsheathed it.

"Zoro! Sanji! Maggie!" Luffy said happily from the platform.

Zoro positioned himself into a stance with on hand on his prized white sword and said, "Stupid! There's a limit to how much you can fool around, Luffy."

"If you're starting a sideshow, let me join you," Sanji said. "What we have to do for now is drive those damn pirates away?"

I couldn't think of anything clever to say.

All of the civilians cleared the square in fear of Zoro.

"Sanji! Zoro! Maggie!" Luffy said.

"So you're here, Zoro!" Buggy said, holding a sword near Luffy's head. "But you're a little too late!" He picked up the sword and looked like he was about to cut off Luffy's head any second.

Zoro and Sanji were running for the platform, but I just stared in horror.

A beautiful woman held out her hand and said, "Guys… get them!" From what happened next, I was pretty sure she was a pirate.

Zoro and Sanji headed straight for the men after them. I slapped myself and ran after them, too.

Buggy laughed evilly and said, "Not even Zoro can stop me now! This is the end of your captain!"

"Zoro, Sanji, Maggie, Usopp, Nami!" Luffy said. I looked up at him and he was smiling. "Sorry. I'm dead!"

With that, Buggy swung his blade down for Luffy's neck.

"Tick Tock!" I yelled, stopping time.

I tried to climb the platform, but I wasn't even tall enough for the first bar. I walked over to Zoro and touched him frantically. He became unfrozen.

"Zoro-san!" I said. "Do you think you can through me up there?!"

"There's no time!" he said.

"But there is!" I said. "Time is stopped!" His mouth dropped as he looked around and noticed no one else was moving. "Can you do it, Zoro-san?" I asked, still touching his arm.

He sheathed all three of his swords and looked up to the platform, eyeing it. He squinted up and said, "Hold on…" He grabbed my arm with one hand and lifted me off the ground briefly. "Yep, I can do it. You're light."

I smiled and said, "Thank you!"

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"I'm planning to try and stop the sword like I did with the plate, but I haven't really mastered it yet…" I said. "If worse comes to worse, I can just free Luffy-san…"

"Ok, I'm counting on you," he said.

"The second you're not touching me, you're going to freeze," I said. "But you're in battle so please… d-don't die, ok?"

"Got it," he said. "I can't die until I defeat Mihawk anyway. It's you that should be worried. Don't underestimate Buggy, alright?"

"Ok," I said. He picked me up by the waist.

"Ready?" he asked.

I nodded and clenched my teeth.

He threw me all the way up to the top of the execution platform. I was very, very impressed with how strong he was.

I stood up on the platform and looked at the scene before me. Buggy's sword was only a couple feet away from his neck; I would have to be precise with my timing…

I took several deep breaths and focused on the sword. But then, I had a thought…

_How long have I stopped time…?_

I was suddenly stricken with fear when I realized as I looked at my watch that it had been about seven minutes. (Whenever I stop time, my watch automatically starts keeping track.)

Oh no! I thought. I'm going to be exhausted… Oh, crap!

I held my dagger and looked at it. I looked to Buggy and thought about stabbing him before I started time…

I was so conflicted.

_Should I save Luffy first? Should I stab Buggy first? Should I wait to stop the sword?_

So many thoughts were swimming in my head when finally, my body gave up and I unwillingly started time again.

My breath was taken away from me as soon as I returned to reality. My whole body ached and it was a struggle to even take a breath.

"M-Maggie?" I heard Luffy whisper.

That's when a sudden burst of lightning hit Buggy's sword and the whole execution platform went up in flames.

Before I knew what was going on, Luffy had grabbed hold of my foot because lighting doesn't strike rubber.

The wooden platform had caught fire and soon it was falling over. It took a lot out of me just to scream as the whole platform fell.

Luffy grabbed me and jumped off the falling platform because he wasn't being forced down anymore. I realized it was pouring down rain.

He picked his hat off the ground and laughed as we landed. "We're alive!" he said. "Lucky!"

"L-Luffy-san…" I struggled to say. "Th-th-thank you."

"Maggie?" he asked. "You ok?"

I shook my head and said, "St-stopping time… hurts."

He helped me walked over to Sanji and Zoro. "Wow, guys!" he said. "I was worried there for a second!"

That's when the marines rushed in. Luffy sat me on the ground and said, "Stay here, Maggie. We got this!"

"No, we should just get out of here," Zoro said. "With this one injured and the navy breathing down our backs, we should just go."

"Yeah," Sanji said, lighting another cigarette. "We'd better hurry back to the ship or we won't make it to the Grand Line!"

"What?!" Luffy asked. That certainly got his attention. "That's not good!" He held out his hand for me and I took it. He put me on his back and said, "Let's hurry!" He took off his hat and put it on my head.

Zoro and Sanji cleared the way of marines for us.

"Thank you… Luffy-san," I said.

"We'd better hurry or we'll be in trouble!" Zoro said as they were running. It was taking all of my strength just to hang onto Luffy.

"We're gonna make it to the Grand Line!" Luffy said happily.

We ran for a couple more minutes until it started pouring down even harder.

"What the hell is up with this storm?!" Zoro complained.

"If we don't leave soon, we'll be stuck here," Sanji said. "Nami-san was right when she said we should hurry back to the ship! Now Magnolia-chan might catch a cold!"

"Run! Run! Run!" Luffy yelled.

"Which way is the sea?!" Zoro asked.

"I can't tell where we're going because of this heavy rain!" Luffy said.

That's when I heard the marines yelling for us to stop behind. I was too exhausted and aching to worry about them.

"What persistent bastards!" Zoro complained. "Should we stop and fight?"

"No time!" Sanji said.

That's when we all stopped. There was a woman ahead of us and it seemed like she knew Zoro.

"You… You lied to me!" she yelled.

"What?!" Sanji asked. "What did you do to her?!

"You didn't ask my name, that's all," he said. "It's not that I lied to you."

"A rogue like you can't be allowed to own such a renowned sword!" she yelled. "I'll collect your sword, the legendary _Wado Ichimonji_!"

"Just try it," he challenged.

They clashed swords for a short period of time before Zoro told us to keep going.

"Let's go," Luffy said to Sanji.

We started running towards the ship again.

"Oh!" Luffy said. "I see the exit! The harbor is up there!"

"Who is it this time?" Sanji asked.

I looked over Luffy's shoulder and say a man with a motorcycle.

"You're finally here…" said the man. "Straw Hat Luffy."

They stopped running and looked at the man.

"Didn't I tell you that you can't enter the Grand Line unless you beat me first?" he said.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about it," he said.

"You're such an airhead…" the man accused. But he was kinda right…

"Oi, Luffy…" Sanji said.

"Sanji, go on ahead. We'll be right there," he said.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take Magnolia-chan?" Sanji asked.

"Nah, it'll be over in a sec," he said.

Sanji ran ahead and called back, "If you let her get hurt, I'm going to cook you!"

Luffy laughed and said, "Maggie, don't worry. This'll be over quickly." He set me down and set me over next to a building.

I kinda wished he would've let Sanji take me back to the ship. I was freezing.

The man that Luffy was about to fight was huge and intense-looking. He had two cigars in his mouth and was wearing a jacket over his bare chest.

"We'll see about that…" said the man. He looked at me for a while and said, "You're the girl from the missing posters… Great. A pirate and a missing child. This is my lucky day."

The wind started picking up tremendously and I held onto Luffy's hat so it wouldn't fly away. He barely ever parted with it, so I assumed it was a precious item to him.

"I'll beat you and enter the Grand Line," Luffy said, determined.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	7. A Flipping Enormous Whale

"Enough of this!" the man said. His hand turned into smoke. I immediately knew his name.

_Two cigars… Smoke for hands… It's Captain Smoker. _I thought._ I think Dad's friends with him._

His smoking hands filled the street and grabbed Luffy. I coughed a little and fanned it away.

"What?" Luffy asked. "What's going on?!" He was lifted into the air by the smoke.

"I ate the Plume-Plume Fruit, so my body becomes smoke at will!" he said.

_Logia type… Wow. Pretty rare. Luffy and I only have Paramecia._

That's when the smoke, controlled by Cpt. Smoker, threw Luffy to the ground.

"What's wrong? Finished already?" he taunted Luffy.

_Luffy… Please get up!_

He did get up. "Gum-Gum Gatling!" Luffy yelled as he stretched his rubber arms to punch Smoker. He was punching so fast; I only saw many, many arms.

But since Cpt. Smoker could turn into smoke, he didn't even bother dodging Luffy's attacks.

"White Blow!" Cpt. Smoker yelled.

A huge plume of smoke trapped Luffy against the side of a building. "You bastard!" Luffy yelled. "Gum-Gum Pistol!" But his hand just went through Cpt. Smoker.

"You get it? You can't even enter the Grand Line," he said while disappearing. He appeared right behind Luffy and put his huge hand on Luffy's head. "Didn't I tell you that?" He floated up and slammed Luffy to the ground.

I really wanted to do something, but I still had trouble moving, it wasn't as bad as before, but it was still enough for me to be down for the count.

But, if I did stop time, I'd feel better, only to feel worse after… I didn't want to take that chance. If I wasn't careful with my time, I could die. But Luffy could die, too! It was like to parts of my brain were at war together. One side wanted to save Luffy at the expense of myself, while the other side trusted Luffy and knew he'd be ok and I should just rest.

"Wanted for a thirty million Berry bounty?" Cpt. Smoker asked, still with his iron grip on Luffy. He laughed and said, "You're running out of your devil's luck."

He went to reach for the weapon on his back, but was stopped by a man in a green cape.

"Don't be so sure," said the cloaked man.

"You're…" Cpt. Smoker said.

"What? Who's that? Who's that?" Luffy asked.

"The government wants your head," Cpt. Smoker said to the man.

"The world is waiting for our answer," he replied.

I didn't get it.

The weather changed dramatically seconds later. All of the wind suddenly increased speed dramatically. I held onto Luffy's hat for dear life as the wind picked us all up.

Literally.

It was strong enough to pick up even Cpt. Smoker!

But it was over almost as soon as it started.

I was thrown into a stone wall by the wind. But I realized that everyone else was there as well, except Nami.

"What happened?" Luffy asked.

Sanji got up quickly and ran over to me. "Magnolia-chan! Are you ok?"

My head was hurting, but I was significantly less exhausted than before. "I'm ok," I said.

He held out his hand and helped me up. Usopp, Luffy, and Zoro all stood up as well.

I could hear Nami calling Luffy in the distance. "Luffy!" she yelled.

I looked around and realized we were at the harbor! She was in the _Going Merry_ and was already sailing out.

"We'd better hurry up or the ship will be swept away!" Sanji said. "Can you walk, Magnolia-chan?" I nodded.

Luffy ran towards a stair case railing and grabbed on. "Gum-Gum Rocket!" His arms sent him shooting towards us and the _Going Merry._ We flew onto the ship. I landed on top of everyone by accident. I patted the top of my head to make sure Luffy's hat was still there, which it was.

I got up quickly and said, "Is everyone ok?"

They all respond with variants of 'yes'.

I gave Luffy his hat back.

The waves were getting really rough in the storm. I was about to climb up to the crow's nest when Sanji told me to get inside.

"If you're up there, you're a better target for lighting!" he said. "Get inside, quickly! We'll handle it out here!"

"Are you su-"

"GO!" he yelled.

I ran inside to escape the freezing rain. I went into the room Nami and I shared and got out an extra blanket and wrapped it around myself. I was so cold. The warmth of the blanket felt like a nice hug.

I changed out of my wet clothes rather clumsily because of the irregular rocking of the ship due to the strong waves of the ship. I wrapped the warm blanket around me and cuddled into my bed to keep warm.

_I hope everyone's gonna be ok out there…_

* * *

Later that day, the weather was still stormy and Nami called another meeting concerning the entrance to the Grand Line. This time, it was in the kitchen.

She slapped a map on the table and said, "I'd heard rumors about it, and it's drawn on this map, too! If it really is true, then the entrance to the Grand Line is a mountain!"

"We have to crash into a mountain?" I asked.

"You can't be serious…" Zoro said.

"I didn't believe it myself, but the map has canals that lead to the mountain. That might mean we have to go up it!" she said.

"What about gravity…?" I asked. "How's that even possible?"

"Yeah! A ship can't climb a mountain!" Zoro said.

"But that's what the map says," she said.

"Nami-san would never say anything that's wrong!" Sanji said.

Zoro sighed. "You stole that map from Buggy, right? Can we really trust it?"

"Well, a map's a map," Nami said.

"Maybe the canals go through the mountain!" I said.

"That would make a bit more sense, but the way it's drawn here, it goes over the mountain," she said.

"Cool!" Luffy said. "We get to climb a mountain!"

"Why can't we just go directly into the Grand Line instead of using the entrance?" Zoro asked.

"We can't!" Luffy said.

"Yep, and there's a reason," Nami said.

"It's much cooler to climb a mountain!" Luffy supplied.

She hit him in the head and said, "That's not the reason!"

"Woah…" Usopp said, who'd been quiet this whole conversation. "The storm stopped!"

"What?" Nami asked. "That can't be… It should've led us directly to the entrance."

We all went above deck to see what happened. It was a downright nice day! It was almost as if the storm hadn't even happened.

I looked to Nami. She looked absolutely terrified. "Oh no!" she said. "We've entered… the Calm Belt!"

"What's that?" Usopp asked.

I looked to the direction where we came. The storm was still over there, but it was like the clouds hit and invisible wall and stopped right before we entered the Calm Belt.

"This is no time to be standing around!" Nami yelled. "Go grab the oars and start rowing as fast as you can!" She looked to me and said, "Hurry and get up there!"

I saluted her and said, "Of course, ma'am!"

I ran to the rope ladder and climbed up to the crow's nest as fast as I could. Nami was still screaming at all the boys when I got up.

That's when the boat started shaking. I grabbed hold of the side of the look-out post and held on tight. I looked over the rail and saw a huge number of Sea Kings. And we were on top of one of them!

I heard the Sea King breath in a couple times, like it was going to sneeze. "Ahh… Ahh… Ahh… CHOO!"

I held on for dear life as the _Going Merry_ was sent flying back into the stormy seas. I couldn't hear anyone because of the storm.

I stood up and looked out my telescope. "Guys! I see the mountain!" I yelled. "It's close!"

We were heading straight for the Red Line. I could barely see the top of it, even with my telescope because of the dark clouds.

I looked at the mountain and saw that there really was a river flowing up the mountain.

They aimed the ship perfectly into the entrance and we started sailing up the mountain!

"WE DID IT!" everyone cheered!

It was a bit scary, going up a steep mountain and going above the clouds, but once we got the top, it was almost like a roller coaster!

But that's when I saw something… I looked through my telescope to get a better view of it.

"G-Guys!" I said. "There's a giant whale down there!"

I don't think anyone could hear me because of the wind and mist, but I could already hear it wailing.

"There's a whale!" yelled. "Up ahead! There's a huge whale!"

"Who cares?!" Luffy said happily. "Go!"

"No, I don't mean huge, I mean flipping enormous! Like, mountain sized!" I yelled.

The mist cleared and everyone saw what I was saying.

"Oh crap!" Usopp yelled.

Nami started screaming.

"It's a whale!" Luffy said.

"That's what I already said!" I yelled. I could see the whale more clearly now. It looked like it had horrible scars on its nose. I howled even louder than before.

"Wh-what are we gonna do?!" Usopp asked frantically.

"Wanna fight?" Luffy asked.

"Stupid!" Nami said. "There's no way in hell we can fight that!"

"But our path is blocked!" Usopp said. "What're we gonna do?!"

"Wait, where are its eyes?" Sanji asked.

"That's right! It might not've noticed us yet!" Nami said.

I looked through my telescope quickly and said, "The eyes are on the sides of its head."

"We're gonna run into it if we don't do something!" Zoro said. "Can we go in through the side?!"

"The rudder's broken!" Usopp said.

_Oh crap! _I thought._ How could the rudder have broken?!_

"Oh!" Luffy said. "I've got an idea."

He ran inside the ship somewhere, along with Sanji and Zoro. I assumed Sanji, Zoro and Usopp were trying to fix the rudder, but I had no idea what Luffy was doing.

We were speeding directly into the whale when all of a sudden, a cannon went off. It slowed down our momentum dramatically and we barley nudged the whale. The only thing that happened was that the head of the goat on the front of the ship broke off.

I felt like I could breathe. "Ahh… Thank God we stopped…" I said, relieved.

But then I had a thought… _What if the ship nudging the whale made it notice us?!_

I looked up to look at its gigantic eyes, but it wasn't looking at us. I sighed and sank into the crow's nest. "Too much has gone on today…" I complained.

"Let's get out of here before it's too late!" Zoro yelled.

The boys, Usopp, Zoro and Sanji, pulled out the oars and rowed quickly away from the whale.

The whale let out a huge moan that was so loud, even covering my ears made no effect.

We were sailing directly in front of its eye. I was lying down in the crow's nest for fear of it noticing me because I was up the highest on the ship.

That's when I heard Luffy yell at the whale. "You… What the hell did you do to my special seat?!"

He directly punched it in the eye.

_WE'RE DONE FOR!_ I thought.

It looked directly at us.

"How was that?! Bring it on, you bastard!" Luffy taunted.

Everyone on deck collectively kicked him in the face, telling him to shut up.

It let out a huge roar in frustration and opened its mouth revealing huge teeth.

Our ship started getting sucked into its mouth. The _Going Merry_ sailed unwillingly into his mouth. I was holding onto the flag pole for dear life as the waves crashed against our ship, threaten to capsize it.

Luffy almost went overboard, but he grabbed onto the whale itself as we sailed deeper and deeper into its mouth.

Finally, it closed its mouth.

We're going to be digested! No… This is not a good way to die! I don't wanna die!

But when it closed its mouth, a sky appeared above.

"What…?" I asked. "Weren't we eaten…?"

I went down the rope ladder to join everyone on deck.

"What's going on…?" I asked.

"Is this a dream?" Usopp asked.

"Yep. Definitely a dream," Zoro said.

There was a small island with a house on it.

"Must be an illusion…" he said.

That's when a giant squid popped up out of the water. Nami, Usopp and I all screamed. Zoro and Sanji were ready to fight it, but it suddenly was harpooned three times from the direction of the small house. It was dragged back into the water.

"Looks like someone lives there," Zoro said.

"Let's hope it's really a person…" Sanji said.

"I wanna go home!" Nami whimpered.

"Luffy went somewhere, too!" Usopp said. "What's gonna happen to us?"

"Come to think of it…" I said. "Where is Luffy-san?"

"Who knows?" Nami said.

_What if he's at the bottom of the ocean…? He can't swim!_

"Wait!" Usopp said. "Should we fire the cannon at the island?!"

"No, hold on a sec…" Sanji said. "Someone's coming out."

He was right. I could see a silhouette off a person in the door way. The man in the doorframe pulled the harpoon ropes. He stepped into the light.

"It's a flower!" Sanji said.

"Flower?" Zoro asked.

I looked at the man, and sure enough, he was brightly colored and had a flower petal hat on.

"Oh wait, it's a person," he said.

"That old man killed a Great King Squid with a single hit…" Nami said.

"Cool!" I said.

"Was he just fishing… or did he do it to save us…?" Sanji asked.

He walked over to his lawn chair while intensely staring at us, sat down and started reading a newspaper.

"Say something!" Sanji yelled angrily.

The man looked up.

"If you wanna fight, we'll fight!" Usopp warned needlessly. "We've got cannons!"

"You better not, or someone will die," he said, staring intently at us. It was almost creepy.

"Oh? Just who're you saying will die?" Sanji asked, smirking.

"Me," said the man.

I laughed, but Sanji got really mad at the old man.

"Well, calm down," Zoro said, putting a hand on Sanji's shoulder. "Hey, old man. Tell us where we are and who you are."

"When asking someone a question, isn't it proper to give your name first?" he said.

"Yeah, good point, sorry-" Zoro said.

"My name is Crocus," said the man. "I'm the lighthouse keeper of the Twin Capes. I'm seventy-one years old and a Gemini. My blood type is AB."

"CAN I CUT HIM?!" Zoro asked angrily.

I looked to Nami. "He's funny…" I said. "In a weird way."

"Y-yeah…" she said.

"You're asking where we are?" Crocus asked. How dare you run your mouth when you barged into my private resort?" He paused and said, "Does it look like we're in a rat's belly?"

"So we were eaten by a whale after all…" Usopp said.

"What's gonna happen?!" Nami asked. "I don't wanna be digested!"

"The exit is over there," he said, pointing to a door.

_WAIT! _I thought to myself._ Exit and being inside animals can only mean one thing… EWWW!_

"That's just gross…" I said.

Usopp noticed that everything was painted to look like the sky.

"Call it a doctor's playful mind," Crocus said.

"Ok, let's get out of here," Zoro said.

A huge wave suddenly came out of nowhere and I fell to the ground and bonked my nose. "Ow…" I said, sitting up. I touched my nose to see if it was ok, which it was. "Whew."

"It's started…" said Crocus.

"What's started?!" Usopp demanded to know.

"This whale…" he said. "Laboon has started hitting his head against the Red Line."

_That's why it has those scars on his nose…_

"He was also howling at the sky!" Nami said.

"What does it mean?" Usopp asked.

"He's suffering!" she said. "Maybe he's trying to kill the whale from inside his body!"

"That's horrible!" I said.

"Ok, let's hurry up and get out. If we don't get a move on, we'll be digested," Zoro said.

"Yeah," Sanji said. "Let's get out of here."

"With waves like this, we've gotta row!" Zoro said.

"Let's hurry!" Nami said. "I'm worried about Luffy!"

"He's outside. I saw him fly out of the mouth," Zoro said.

That's when Crocus jumped into the stomach water.

"Hey, Maggie-chan, get into the kitchen. We'll handle it out here, 'kay?" Nami said.

"Ok," I said, walking into the kitchen.

* * *

A couple minutes later, Luffy and two people arrived on the ship, but Luffy knocked them unconscious and we went onto the old man's island.

"What're you doing inside this whale?" Nami asked the two strangers.

Luffy started climbing the palm tree on the island.

"They're thugs from a nearby town," Crocus explained. "They're after whale meat. If they capture Laboon, it can feed the townspeople for at least two to three years, since it's the world largest whale. I won't let them eat him. There's a reason he keeps hitting himself on the Red Line and howling at the Reverse Mountain."

"Reason?" Nami asked.

"Yeah. He's a whale with a human heart," Crocus said. "And he's been waiting patiently for a certain pirate group for fifty long years." He told us the story of Laboon. How the pirates loved him and played with him, but then ditched him and broke their promise of coming back to see him.

I was somewhat touched and disgusted with the pirates. It was so cute how the whale still loved them even after the horrible pirates abandoned him!

We exited the whale soon after hearing the story, but Crocus followed us. We took the strangers on board with us. One of them was a girl with bright blue hair, and the other was a man with a '9' tattooed on each of his cheeks. The man was called Mr. 9 and the woman was Ms. Wednesday.

We actually exited from the side of the whale, instead of the back.

"I told Laboon everything," Crocus said. "But he doesn't accept my words. Since then, he started howling at Reverse Mountain and started slamming his body against the Red Line."

"What a whale…" Sanji said.

"When there's no point in waiting…" Usopp said.

"It's horrible, what they did to poor Laboon…" I said.

Luffy grabbed the mast and started running and yelling at the whale. "GUM-GUM FLOWER ARRANGEMENT!" He stuck the mast straight into Laboon's head.

"Isn't that the mast…?" Zoro said.

"Yep. From our ship," Sanji said.

"It's the main mast…" Usopp said. "Hey! Don't break the ship!"

Laboon started howling and thrashing in pain, making our ship rock wildly.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Zoro, Sanji, Nami, and Usopp all yelled at Luffy.

The jumped into the air and landed face-first on the Red Line.

"Hey, kid!" Crocus yelled.

Luffy started fighting the whale, but it was very one-sided on the whale's part.

"It's a draw," Luffy said. The whale stopped attacking him. "I'm strong, aren't I? You wanna defeat me, don't you?! Our fight isn't over yet! So we have to fight again! Your buddies're dead, but I'm your rival forever!"

That when I realized what he was doing.

"We definitely have to fight again in order to decide who is stronger," Luffy said. "After going around the Grand Line, we'll come back to see you again! When I come back, let's fight again!"

I could've sworn I saw the whale crying, but I didn't think that was possible. Laboon howled happily for the first time in fifty years.

Luffy proceeded to paint a weird version of our flag on Laboon's head.

"This is the symbol of our promise to fight again!" he said. "Until we come back, don't remove that mark by hitting your head. Got that?!" He waited, as if the whale was going to respond. "All right!"

That's when we noticed Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9 had run away.

Luffy picked something up that looked kinda like a compass. "What the heck is this?" he asked.

Since Usopp was fixing the mast, I really had nothing to do. That's when Nami screamed and said her compass was broken.

"You need a log pose to travel around the Grand Line," Crocus said. "It's a special compass that can record magnetism."

"That that what this is?" Luffy asked, holding up the strange compass he found.

"Yeah, that's it," said Crocus. "Without the log pose, it's impossible to travel in the Grand Line."

Nami punched Luffy and yelled, "How come you have one?!"

"It's what those two weirdoes dropped on the ship," he said. "Why'd you hit me?"

"Just going with the flow," she said.

I laughed. Nami took the log pose from Luffy and inspected it.

Crocus went on to explain how it worked. He also mentioned the last island in the Grand Line, Raftel. The only one in history to ever go there was Gold Rodger, the King of the Pirates. It's suspected that the One Piece is hidden there.

"We'll have to take good care of this, huh," Nami said, strapping the log pose on her wrist. "It's the key to our journey."

All of a sudden, Sanji kicked Luffy and he was about to shatter the log pose.

"Tick Tock!" I said quickly. I pulled the log pose off of Nami's hand got it safely away from the incoming Luffy. "Un-tock."

Time started again and Luffy flew onto the ground.

"Where did the log pose go?!" Nami asked. "LUFFY! YOU BROKE IT!"

"No," I said. "I saved it!" I held up the log pose.

Nami hugged me and said, "Thank you so much, Maggie-chan! You're a life-saver!"

"No problem," I said.

She put the log pose back on her wrist and scolded Sanji and Luffy for being too wild.

Laboon washed on shore with the two strangers. Sanji helped Ms. Wednesday up.

"Hey," Mr. 9 asked. "We have a favor to ask."

They said they wanted a ride to their village, Whiskey Peak.

"That's a weird name," Luffy said.

"What happened to your own ship?" Nami asked.

"It's… broken…" Ms. Wednesday said.

"Isn't that asking a bit much, Mr. 9 after trying to kill the whale?" Nami taunted.

"Placing confidence in your character, we're begging you!" Ms. Wednesday said.

"We'll definitely return the favor," Mr. 9 said.

Crocus told us not to do it because they were dishonest people.

"Yeah sure," Luffy said. "You can ride with us."

"What?!" they both asked, in shock.

"Did you say Whisky Peak? Let's go there," he said.

"Really?" Usopp asked. "You serious?"

"What's the problem? Don't worry about the small stuff," he said.

We set sail as soon as the log pose stored the magnetism.

With the mast repaired, I went up to the crow's nest and sighed, looking out into the Grand Line.

I had a feeling something big was about to start.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	8. Fishy Town

It snowed the next day, much to the surprise and befuddlement of everyone on board.

I was stuck up in the crow's nest with three blankets, a coat, earmuffs, and a scarf. I was still freezing.

I was very thankful when Sanji came up and gave me a large cup of hot chocolate to keep me warm.

Usopp and Luffy were making snowmen out on the deck, which soon turning into destroying each other's snowmen. That turned into a snowball fight.

Nami ordered Sanji to start shoveling snow off the deck, which he happily agreed too.

Suddenly, I saw lightning up ahead.

"What…?" I asked, shivering. "L-l-lightning during a s-s-s-snow storm?" I took a sip of the hot coco to warm me up. "Ahh…" I said. "Much be-"

A huge gust of wind sent chills up my spine and it started snowing even harder, there was more lightning, too. I sneezed

"L-L-L-L-Luffy-s-s-s-san!" I shivered. "C-c-c-can I p-please come down? I'm going t-t-t-to turn into an i-i-ice cube…"

"Huh?" Luffy asked. "You're still up there?!"

"Yeah…" I said.

"Magnolia-chan!" Sanji said. "I'll rescue you from this horrible winter weather!" He climbed up the rope ladder and picked me up, bringing me into the warmth of inside the kitchen.

"Th-th-thank you, S-Sanji-san," I said.

I snuggled up next to the stove, which Nami turned on for heating purposes and warmed up. I realized I left my hot chocolate up in the crow's nest and made a mental note to go back out and get it as soon as the snow stopped.

That's when Nami screamed.

"What?!" I asked.

"No way!" she said, looking at the log pose. She ran out of the kitchen and yelled, "Turn the ship around 180 degrees! Hurry! The ship turned around and is going the opposite direction!" She looked at the log pose and said, "When I only looked away from it for a second…"

"Are you really a navigator?" Ms. Wednesday jeered. "In this sea, you can't trust the winds, sky, waves, clouds, anything. The only thing that doesn't change is the direction the log pose points. Understand?"

Nami kicked Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9 out onto the deck and took their blankets. She gave one to me and I took it graciously. "Stop bossing me around!" she yelled at them. "Go help already!" She walked out of the kitchen and started spouting orders at the crew.

I felt a bit warmer now.

But that's when everything stopped. The dark clouds rolled away like the blizzard never even happened. There was a warm breeze in the air.

_I hate the Grand Line…_ I thought.

I turned off the stove and went down into our room to put the blankets, coat, and scarf back.

I went back up on deck and up into the crow's nest. The sun felt nice after the horribly cold storm.

There was an iceberg directly up ahead, but Sanji called it out before me. The sunny weather suddenly turned foggy and humid.

_What the heck is going on with this weather?!_

We avoided the iceberg by a hair and sailed back into the direction Nami's log pose pointed. But apparently, there was water leaking in on the bottom deck. Usopp went to go patch the hole immediately.

That's when the weather changed again, the fog dispersed and black clouds rolled in, bringing a huge gust of wind. The waves got immensely stronger and larger. Nami ordered the men to unfurl the sails. With this strong wind, we'd tip over if the sails were down! I crouched low in the crow's nest to keep clear of the strong wind.

Everyone was working quickly to make the ship sailable. There was even more lightning and I was scared that I was going to get electrocuted.

But everything stopped and became perfectly fine again within minutes. Everyone was passed out on the deck from physical and mental exhaustion.

Except Zoro, who actually slept through the whole ordeal. Nami punched him for that.

That's when I saw the island! "Guys!" I yelled. "Whiskey Peak is just up ahead!"

The island looked like it had giant cacti on it. I took out my telescope to get a better look. Magnified, the spikes on the cacti looked like… graves…

_Something's a little off about this place… _I thought._ I'll be sure to be on my guard._

Before we even docked, Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9 jumped off the ship saying, "If we're linked by fate, we'll meet again. Bye bye, baby!" Then… splash.

"They're… gone?" I asked.

Luffy decided we were going to land on the island anyway. There was a river that led inland. Since my job was done for the time being, I climbed down the rope ladder and went to go get my bag from inside our room.

Usopp was paranoid that there were monsters on the island. Luffy said that if we see some, we could just leave.

"Wait a second," Nami said. "We have to stay on this island for a certain period of time."

"Why?" Luffy asked.

"The log pose!" Nami reminded them. "We have to store the magnetism, or else we can't go to the next island. Each island has a different amount of time to store the log. Some require several hours, while others require days."

"Then even if this is a monster island that we want to escape from right away, we can't leave!" Usopp said frantically.

"Yep," Nami said.

"Well, we can think about that when it happens," Luffy said nonchalantly. "Let's go!"

"Luffy's right," Zoro said. "Let's go. It's not worth thinking about right now."

"Well, no matter what happens, I'll protect Nami-san and Magnolia-chan," Sanji said.

That made me feel a little better, but I didn't think monsters were going to be a problem here.

"H-hey, wait…" Usopp said, clutching his throat. "My chronic illness is suddenly… My 'don't go to the island' disease is…"

I rushed over to him, wanting to help. "Are you ok, Usopp-san?!" I asked.

"He's lying…" Nami said.

"Oh…" I said, embarrassed. "Sorry."

"Ok, we're going in," Nami said. "Make sure you're ready to run as well as fight."

I saluted Nami and said, "Of course."

Usopp and I were very nervous about landing on the island. Sanji made it even creepier.

"I wonder what'll appear…" he said. "Oh, look… I see something."

"Yeah," Luffy said. "Something's moving."

I winced, worried about what it could be.

"Humans…?" Sanji said, looking out. "Humans are there!"

"Be careful, guys…" Nami said.

Usopp had his new goggles over his eyes with his slingshot ready to fire. "Dammit… Since it's come to this, I've prepared myself!"

I listened closely and hear people screaming… No. Cheering! They were cheering.

"Welcome to the Grand Line!" they cheered.

_We're being welcomed…?_

"What's going on…?" Sanji asked.

Luffy laughed and said, "They seem nice!"

_Too nice… _I thought._ What kinda town would welcome pirates to this degree?_

There was confetti everywhere, people with welcome signs, many streamers, and people playing musical instruments.

Sanji was sold. "Woah! There're lots of cute girls!"

Luffy and Usopp were letting the cheers go to their heads.

We docked our ship and climbed off. I hid behind Nami.

"Wel-" a man said before he coughed. "Ma! Ma! Ma! Welcome. My name is Igarappoi. I'm the mayor of Whiskey Peak."

"I'm Luffy. Nice to meet you," he said. "You went a little overboard at curling your hair."

He was right. The man had almost tube-like curls wrapping around his head.

"Whiskey Peak is a town that thrives on making liquor and music," Igarappoi said. "Hospitality is the pride of our town. As for our proud liquor, it's as bountiful as the seawater. Would you allow us to throw a party for you so that we can hear your tales of-" he coughed again. "Ma! Ma! Ma! your tales of adventure?"

"We'll be glad to!" Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp said together.

"Three idiots…" Nami observed. She turned to Igarappoi and asked, "How long will it take for the log of this island to be stored?"

"Log?" he asked. "Forget about the boring stuff. Please just rest after such a long journey."

That was a major red flag to me. It seemed to me like he didn't want to tell her.

"Now, everyone!" he yelled. "Prepare for the party! Sing to entertain the adventurers!"

"Party time!" all the townspeople cheered.

Afternoon turned into night as the town threw us a huge party. There was a lot of loud music, alcohol, drunken people, and contests.

Igarappoi offered everyone a drink of wine.

"I don't drink," Nami said. "No thank you."

"And I'm twelve…" I said.

"Not to worry!" he said, pushing it closer. "Its flavor is wine itself, but it doesn't contain alcohol."

Nami took a sip and said, "Wow! This is delicious!"

"To celebrate our good grape harvest, we'll have our usual toast competition!" Igarappoi announced. "You have to continue to toast and the last one standing is the winner. Would you like to join?"

"No thanks," Nami said. "I can't drink that much."

But what he said next, gave her more motivation than needed. "The prize money for the winner is 100,000 Berries!"

She stood up, holding her cup and demanded another cup.

Both Zoro and Nami participated. I looked at the cup in front of me, a little weary.

_What if they spiked it…?_ I asked myself.

Everyone looked like they were having a great time except me. Despite the fact that I wasn't comfortable around people I didn't know, I was still hung up on the fact that I saw gravestones on the cacti.

_Wait… _I thought._ Every town needs a graveyard… Maybe it's just there weird custom or something._

I decided to let the whole grave thing go and tried to enjoy myself. But still, some part of me had a nagging feeling things weren't what they seemed to be in this town.

Zoro finally quit after his thirteenth cup and went to sleep right there on the couch. Nami accidentally drank my cup, so I had an excuse to pretend to go to sleep as well.

* * *

I actually did fall asleep for a little while, regardless of the loud atmosphere of the party.

When I woke up, I still pretended I was asleep and shifted on the couch so I could look at my watch without 'waking up'.

It was almost two in the morning and the party was still going on. Not many people were still up, though.

I waited about thirty minutes for the whole town to go seemingly silent.

I heard a couple voices outside the bar where we were all sleeping.

"What happened to them?" I heard Ms. Wednesday say.

"They've fallen…" Igarappoi said, "to hell."

_Wh-what…?!_

That's when a door opened and another voice joined the conversation. "Jeez… They were a stubborn bunch, apart from the little girl, so I added a little alcohol to their drinks."

_They're obviously talking about us…_

"Was it really necessary to put on an elaborate act…?" said the woman's voice that had just joined the conversation. "They're just weak-looking brats. We should just beat them at the harbor. Also, we didn't have our hopes up for the whale meat anyway."

"Hey!" Mr. 9 said. "We did try out best!"

"Calm down," Igarappoi said. "Look at this. I've checked them out beforehand."

"Thirty million Berries?!" the rest asked.

_They must be talking about Luffy's wanted poster._

"And the little girl is wanted by the navy, too," he continued. "It's foolish to judge a pirate's ability based on looks, Miss Mon-" he coughed. "Ma! Ma! Ma! Ms. Monday."

That was far enough. I'd heard enough to act. I stood up and walked over to Luffy, who was sleeping on the floor.

"Luffy-san!" I whispered.

No matter what I did, he wouldn't wake up…

I looked around and thought I should wake up Zoro next. I went to shake him awake, but he caught my hand.

I gasped.

"I heard everything," he whispered. "I wasn't asleep. I need to get out of here without being seen." He looked at me smirking and said, "Think you can help me with that?"

I nodded. I fished out my handcuffs and put them on the wrist he was holding. I attached the other end to his wrist.

"Tick-Tock," I said quietly, stopping time. "Ok, ready," I said, talking in a normal voice.

He got up and started walked out the door, needless to say, I followed close behind.

When we were outside, I saw the four of them frozen. It was definitely Igarappoi, Mr. 9, Ms. Wednesday, and a dark skinned woman with pig tails named Ms. Monday. She was very muscular, and had an appearance that did not fit her high voice.

Zoro was looking around. He pointed with his other hand to the roof of the bar we just exited. "Let's go there," he said.

"How?" I asked. "There isn't a ladder or a flight of stairs…"

He sighed and said, "We gotta jump."

I laughed and said, "I can't jump that high. Nope! No way."

"Exactly," he said, picked me up. "_You_ can't."

He jumped up onto the roof with ease. He set me down and I rolled my eyes. I got out the key to the handcuffs and said, "Ok, I'm going back in…"

"Thanks, Magnolia," he said. "I'll handle these guys, so try to stay out of sight."

"I'm going back inside and pretend to be asleep," I said.

I unlocked him from the handcuffs and he became frozen. I frowned and tried to figure out how to get down.

Finally, I just jumped and landed, surprisingly enough, on my feet. I mentally applauded myself and walked back inside the bar. I sat down on the couch and looked at my watch.

"Five minutes, alright, I can live with that," I said.

I got back into the same position I was before and said, "Un-Tock."

Time started again and I felt weak, but since I was lying down, I was ok.

"What about them?" Ms. Monday asked.

"What do we do?" Mr. 9 asked.

"If we kill them, the bounty drops by thirty percent for the Straw Hat, we won't get any money for the girl since she's a missing child," Mr. 8 said. "Capture them alive."

"Sorry…" I heard Zoro say. "Do you mind letting them sleep?"

I couldn't help but smile as the four outside gasped.

Two people ran outside. "Mr. 8, Ms. Monday! The guy with the bellyband escaped from the room when we weren't looking!" said a random guy.

"He's up there," said Ms. Wednesday.

"You bastard…!" Mr. 8 said angrily. "I thought you were completely asleep! How did you get up there?!"

I heard Zoro chuckle and said, "I had help."

I smiled even wider.

"Swordsmen never make the mistake of letting their guard down that much," he said. "So, let's see if I've got this right. This is a nest of bounty hunters."

_Bounty hunters…? That does make sense from their conversation earlier…_

"You dupe pirates who are in high spirits after entering the Grand Line," he said. "Looks like there're about 100 bounty hunters here… I'll fight you all, Baroque Works!"

Looks like he was right about their name.

"How do you know our company's name?!" Mr. 8 asked, infuriated.

"Used to be in a similar line of work," he admitted. "I was recruited by you guys once, but I rejected the offer. Employees don't know each other's identity and are called by code names, and the boss' identity and whereabouts are a mystery, too."

After a long period of silence, Mr. 8 said, "This is surprising… If you know our secrets, we have no other choice but to kill you. Another gravestone will be added to the Cactus Rocks."

_I KNEW IT! _I thought._ But that's not a good thing…_

I was about to sit up, to go help him, but Zoro's words rang through my ears: "I'll handle these guys, so you try to stay out of sight."

_If that's what you want, Zoro… Alright, then._

"Kill him!" Mr. 8 commanded.

Trusting Zoro, I took the time to actually get some sleep, but I was awoken minutes later by all the gunshots.

That's when I heard Nami was awake, too.

"I knew something was weird with this town!" she said.

I sat up and looked at her. "You're awake too?!" I asked.

"Yep!" she said, getting up. "I'm gonna look for treasure."

I lied back down on the couch and said, "Be careful…" I yawned.

"No, you're coming with me," she said. "In case something happens."

She grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the room.

"Wha…? I'm tired, Nami-chan!" I said. "Let me go!"

"No can do," she said, digging into my purse and attached the handcuffs to hers and my wrist. "In case we get spotted, we can make a quick escape."

I sighed and followed her around, looking for treasure. She complained because apparently there wasn't much.

Soon, the gun fire stopped. Zoro probably had beaten them.

"Ah!" Nami said, hearing the silence. "That's our 'all clear'."

She dragged me outside and we saw all the defeated bodies. We went around a corner and heard voices.

"There're criminals here that are big enough for the boss to send us here to deal with," said a man.

While Nami wasn't paying attention, I unlocked our handcuffs quickly and put them back into my bag.

"These're the boss' words: 'They've found out my secrets'," continued the man. "Of course, I don't even know what kind of secrets, but our company's motto is 'mystery'. If someone finds out the boss' secrets, that's, of course, a sin worthy of death."

Nami and I looked at each other, shocked.

"So, when we very carefully investigated who learned his secrets…" said a woman's voice. "Oh boy, we found out that a VIP from a certain kingdom sneak into Baroque Works."

"Wait a sec!" said Mr. 9. "Although I'm wearing a crown, I'm not a king! I swear!"

"We're not talking about you!" the woman snapped.

"The sinners are those who're missing from Alabasta right now," said the man.

"Die! Igarapapa!" said Mr. 8.

There was an explosion near us.

"I won't let you lay a finger on our princess!" he said.

_Woah… What's happening?!_

"Igaram!" said Ms. Wednesday.

"Igaram, the Squad Captain of Alabasta Kingdom Security…" said the man. "And its princess, Nefertari Vivi. In the name of the Baroque Works' boss, we'll eliminate you two."

Nami and I gasped.

_Ms. Wednesday is a princess…?!_

After a couple explosions and gunshots later, Igaram, aka Igarappoi, aka Mr. 8 said, "Vivi-sama… Don't mind me. Escape from here. For our motherland… Without you… our kingdom will be… Please! Hurry!"

"You think you can escape us?" asked the man.

"Don't mess with me!" Vivi, aka Ms. Wednesday said.

That's when Mr. 9 said, "I don't really get what's going on, but we're a pair. I'll buy you some time! Get going, Ms. Wednesday!"

There was an explosion, and I saw Mr. 9 being flung towards the harbor.

I heard Igaram start begging someone to help. He called the man 'Sir Swordsman'. It was Zoro!

"I promise that you will be rewarded immensely!" Igaram said.

That caught Nami's attention. She stepped out and asked, "Is this 'immense reward' for real?" I followed her, close behind. "I'll take up that offer! How does one billion Berries sound?"

"O-One billion…?!" Igaram asked.

I admit, I was shocked for a second or two, but not surprised. Nami was obsessed with money, after all.

"So, will you promise us the one billion, Squad Captain?" she asked. "If you don't ask for our help, your princess probably will die." She smirked mischievously.

_She's a horrible person…_ I thought.

"A mere soldier like me can't promise such large sums of money…" Igaram said.

She squatted down next to him and said, "You're not suggesting a princess is worth less than that, are you?"

I sighed and looked at Zoro.

"If you're willing to help save the princess, it would be best if you negotiate the terms with her directly," he said.

"Meaning I gotta start by saving her, huh?" she said. "Alright, then. Zoro, go save her."

"Yeah right!" he said, pissed off.

"But I'll let you off the hook for the money you owe me if you do," she said. "You still haven't paid me back the 200,000 Berries yet."

"But I gave you the 100,000 Berries back the same day! Gimme a break!" he said.

"Nope," she said. "I told you a 300% interest. Jeez… Can you even keep a single promise?"

That made him very, very angry. I hid behind Nami. "Dammit!" he yelled, running after the princess.

"Thanks a bunch!" she called after him.

Igaram started droning on and on about how he was ashamed of himself because he couldn't protect the princess.

After Nami failed to comfort him, I sat down next the closest building and yawned.

Nami asked Igaram about Baroque Works, who explained the general gist of it.

"Ok!" Nami said.

I was trying to fall asleep yet again when Nami grabbed my hand and said, "We should probably see how Zoro's doing."

"Nami-chan…" I complained.

We walked towards the sounds of explosions and saw Luffy and Zoro fighting each other.

She snuck up behind them and punched both of them in the face. "STOP FIGHTING!" she yelled. "What the heck are you guys doing?! It's a good thing you managed to keep the girl safe! You almost let a billion Berries get away from us!"

"What are you talking about?" Vivi asked. She was riding a very large duck. "Why did you save me?"

"Yeah… about that…" Nami said. "Will you make a contract with me?"

"Contract?" Vivi asked.

Nami explained what was going on to Vivi and Zoro explained everything that happened while he was sleeping. It turns out they were only fighting because Luffy thought Zoro just cut everyone in town for kicks.

"So there you have it," Nami said. "As compensation, I'd like one billion Berries. You saw how strong these guys are. It's a pretty good offer, if you ask me."

"I can't," Vivi said. "I do appreciate your saving me. Thank you. But Alabasta is in the middle of a civil war… The people revolted, and the kingdom fell into chaos. Then one day, I learned that the populace was being manipulated by this group, Baroque Works! That's why I asked Igaram if there was a way I could infiltrate Baroque Works, to let us see who was pulling the strings."

"Pretty high-spirited princess," Zoro said. "Do did you figure out what they're after?"

She nodded. "The founding of an ideal nation," she said, as if reciting a mantra. "But that's a lie. The actual goal is to take over Alabasta! I have to hurry back and tell everyone what's going on. If I don't do something… If I don't do something…!"

Nami sighed and said, "I see... So that's the deal. Now I get it. There'd be no money during a civil war."

"That's what you're concerned about…?" I asked.

"Hey," Luffy asked. "Who _is_ pulling the strings?"

She gasped. "Th-the boss' identity?!" she asked, almost panicked.

"You know, right?" he asked.

"Don't ask me!" she said. "Don't ask me that! Your lives will be put in danger, too!"

Nami laughed nervously and said, "I'll pass on that."

"Me too…" I said. "They're trying to take over a country! Sounds like they mean business, too…"

"Yes!" Vivi said. "As strong as you are, you'd never stand a chance against-"

"TICK-TOCK!" I yelled, but I didn't freeze time. I just interrupted her to keep her from saying the name.

Vivi gasped and said, "I almost said it! I can't believe I almost said that the boss was one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Crocodile!"

"Now it just sounds like you wanna get us all killed!" Nami yelled angrily.

All of a sudden, an otter flew away on a hawk's back.

Nami started pouting and threatened to leave, but apparently, the sea otter and the hawk had pictures of us.

"Looks like all four of us are on the hit list for Baroque Works, now," Zoro said.

Vivi apologized profusely.

Luffy laughed and said, "This is exciting!"

"No! No it is not!" I said.

"I don't wanna die!" Nami and I pouted.

That's when Igaram came up to us, wearing a much larger version of Vivi's clothes. He also carried four dummies. "Fear not!" he said. "I have a plan!"

Luffy laughed at him, but Nami and I were sulking.

"Vivi-sama, you know what will happen next; now that they know you know the boss' secrets."

"A thousand or so people will come after you," she said.

Nami and I looked at each other and sulked still further.

"Therefore, I will pretend to be you, like so, and sail straight to Alabasta with four dummies on board."

"These are us?" Luffy asked, poking the dummies.

"Decoy, huh?" Zoro said.

"While the pursuers are busy with me, you will head to Alabasta via normal route," he continued.

Nami stood up in defiance. "Wait a minute!" she yelled. "Who said we were gonna take the princess there?!"

"You did…" I whispered.

"Why not?" Luffy asked. "Sure. We'll do it."

"Crocodile is gonna come after us!" she yelled.

"Is he strong?" Luffy asked.

"He's one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea," Igaram said. "Will you do it?"

Luffy smile and said, "Yeah! Sounds like fun."

* * *

Igaram left on a ship, saying goodbye to Vivi. He told us to take the island-hopping route to Alabasta, instead of using an Eternal Pose to get there. (Eternal Poses are just permanent forms of log poses, meaning they point to one island forever.)

"Please take good care of the princess," he said.

"Of course!" Luffy said.

Igaram set sail towards Alabasta. We waved goodbye as he was about to become out of sight.

That's when the ship exploded.

"They're already after us?!" Nami asked, shocked.

Luffy picked up his straw hat and yelled, "He was a great person!"

"Nami, the log?!" Zoro asked.

"We're ok!" she said. "It's stored up!"

"Hurry! We have to go now!" he yelled.

They were already running for our ship, but Vivi was staring at the fire on the sea.

I hugged her and said, "Vivi-san, if you don't want him to die in vain, please come."

She looked at me, sobbing, and nodded. "Ok," she cried.

We took off running towards the ship.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	9. Little Garden

We got on board the _Going Merry _as quickly as we could and waited for Luffy to come back with Sanji and Usopp.

I climbed up to the crow's nest and got my telescope out and ready. This was going to be a stressful journey for me, looking out for enemy ships and all.

That's when someone weird appeared on our ship.

"Y-you're…!" Vivi said.

"I ran into Mr. 8 a short while ago," said the strange woman.

"You killed Igaram!" Vivi said angrily.

"Who cares about that?!" Luffy yelled. "What're you doing on this ship?! Who are you?!"

"What are you doing here, Ms. All Sunday?!" Vivi asked.

_So she's part of Baroque Works! _I thought.

"What number is she partnered to?" Nami asked.

"She's Mr. 0's partner… the boss!" Vivi said. "She's the only one to know the boss's identity. We followed her to find out who he was."

"More correctly…" she said. "I allowed you to follow me."

"You're the one who told him we discovered his identity, right?!" Vivi said.

"Correct," she said.

"What exactly are you trying to do?!" Vivi asked.

"Good question…" she said. "You were all so intent and serious that I found myself helping out. The idea of a princess trying her hardest to save her kingdom, while making herself an enemy of Baroque Works… It was just so ridiculous."

"DON'T MOCK ME!" Vivi yelled angrily.

Sanji pulled a gun on Ms. All Sunday, Usopp had his slingshot ready, Zoro had a sword ready, and Nami pulled out her rod.

I couldn't really do anything because of where I was… Stuck up in the crow's nest, all I could do was watch.

"I'd appreciate it if you don't point such dangerous objects at me," she said, somewhat angrily.

All of the crew's weapons were knocked out of their hands, even though she didn't move!

_Devil Fruit powers! _I thought.

"Now, now. Don't be hasty," she said. "I don't have a reason to fight."

She took Luffy's hat from him with her Devil Fruit powers and put it on top of her own hat.

"So you're the straw hat captain I've heard so much about… Monkey D. Luffy," she said.

"Gimme my hat back!" he yelled. "Are you trying to start a fight?!"

"Tick-Tock…" I whispered, freezing time.

I climbed down the rope ladder and over to Ms. All Sunday. I took the hat from her head and put it back on Luffy's head.

"Un-Tock," I said.

"Oh! My hat!" Luffy said. "Thanks, Maggie!"

"Welcome," I said.

Ms. All Sunday was staring at me with an unnerving smile. "A princess being protected by a handful of pirates… How unlucky. But what's even more unlucky is the course your log pose indicates," she said, still staring at me. "The name of the next island is Little Garden. We don't even need to do anything. You'll be wiped out before you even reach Alabasta."

"Will not!" Luffy said.

She was still staring at me! I was getting creeped out.

"Don't you think getting yourself wiped out is foolish?" she asked. All of a sudden, an Eternal Pose appeared in Vivi's hands. "You can skip Little Garden with that. It points to the island just before Alabasta: Nothing At All Island. None of our employees know that course, so no one will chase you."

"What..?" Nami asked. "She's a good person?"

"Why're you giving this to us?!" Vivi asked.

"It's a trap," Zoro said.

"Is it, now?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, but still looking at me.

Luffy grabbed the Eternal Pose from Vivi and broke it with his bare fist. "Who cares about that?!" he yelled.

Nami kicked him in the face, yelling, "You idiot! What if she's actually a good person?!"

"You're not the one who decides this ship's course!" he said to Ms. All Sunday.

"I see. That's too bad," she said, walking away. She finally dropped her gaze from me. "I don't hate high-spirited people. So if you survive, let's meet again." She jumped off the ship and onto a turtle she used to sail away.

Vivi collapsed to her knees and said, "I can't tell what that woman is thinking!"

"Neither can I…" I murmured.

With the tension eased, I went back up to the crow's nest. Usopp and Sanji demanded to know what was going on.

I sat up there, thinking.

_Why was she staring only at me…?_ I asked myself. _Does she know me or something?_

We kept our course headed towards Little Garden, even though Ms. All Sunday said we would die.

But then again, why should we trust her?

* * *

A couple uneventful days later, I finally saw the next island with my telescope!

"Guys!" I yelled. "I can see the island! We're close!"

This got everyone pretty hyped up and itching to see the newest island on our Grand Line adventure. Everyone gathered at the front of the ship as I climbed down from the crow's nest. Nami looked at her log pose and official said that it was the next island we were stopping at, Little Garden.

We found a small river and sailed deep into the island. From what we could see from the ship, it seemed like a jungle island. Vines and huge plants tangled the landscape.

"This place doesn't quite fit its cute name," Nami said.

I nodded in agreement.

"We have to be careful," Vivi said. "I'm worried about what Ms. All Sunday was saying."

"A-Are you saying… m-monsters are gonna appear?!" Usopp asked, panicked.

"Who knows?" Luffy said casually.

"Let's just get the log pose filled and go!" Usopp said.

"I doubt it'll be stored that quickly," Nami said.

"We also have to stock up on food soon," Sanji said. "We didn't get anything from the last town."

"Well, I hope there's a barbeque restaurant here!" Luffy said.

"Like hell there'd be one!" Sanji yelled.

"But you said we were going to stock up on food," Luffy said.

"We'll collect food later," he said.

"But it could be dangerous to go ashore," Nami said. She pointed to the bank of the river. "Just take a look at the plants! I've never seen anything like them, even in an encyclopedia."

There was a very loud bird overhead that shrieked and squawked, scaring Nami, Usopp, and myself.

The bird descended upon Sanji and it looked like it was going to pick him up, but he kicked the bird and it flew away.

"Damn bird…" he said.

Right after it flew away, what sounded like a huge explosion came from up ahead.

"Is… Is that something you normally hear in a jungle…?" I asked, a little bit frightened of this island.

"It sounded like a volcano!" Usopp said, wailing in trepidation.

I casually made my way towards the middle of the ship when an abnormally large tiger prowled out of the thick, tangled vines and started growling at us, while inside I was very nervous about this island.

_Yep, staying on the boat. Staying on the freaking boat. Nope. Not gonna even step on foot on the island, I'm staying right here, on this boat. _I thought.

That's when the tiger roared in pain and collapsed dead on the ground.

"What?!" Nami asked. "What happened? This is definitely not normal!"

"It's decided! We're not gonna go ashore!" Usopp said.

"Yeah," Nami said. "We can wait here on the ship until the log is stored."

Zoro dropped the anchor not long after. Luffy was laughing with much curiosity in his eyes.

"Sanji!" he said. "Make a lunch for me! A pirate lunch with lots of meat and no veggies! I smell adventure in the air!"

"Wait!" Nami said. "You're going on the island?!"

"Adventure! Adventure!" Luffy said happily. "Wanna come?"

Sanji went into the kitchen to make Luffy his so called 'pirate lunch', while Nami and Usopp thought he was completely insane.

"Say, can I come with you?" Vivi asked.

"Sure!" Luffy said excitedly.

Vivi said it would get her mind off things and kill time until the log was stored.

"No way!" Nami said. "It may be ok for Luffy, but it's too dangerous for you!"

"Wait…" I said. "Can I come?"

Despite my previous thought, I actually thought being with Vivi and Luffy could be fun for wasting time until the log was stored.

"The more the merrier!" Luffy said. "Anyone else? Zoro? Sanji?"

They both shook their heads. Nami and Usopp were definitely not coming, either.

"Then, I'll make a lunch of love for both Vivi-chan and Magnolia-chan," Sanji said.

"Can you prepare something to drink for Karoo, too?" Vivi asked.

"Of course," he said. "Leave it to me!"

I took a deep breath as I went into the girl's room to get my bag.

When everyone was ready and Luffy had our meals in a backpack, we decided to take off.

Nami kept saying we were all crazy and going to get killed. With Luffy around, I was pretty sure we'd be fine.

Vivi let me ride on the back of Karoo because I was small, while she steered him. And with that, we jumped off the boat, quite literally, and started our adventure in Little Garden.

"See you later!" Vivi called back at the ship.

"Let's go!" Luffy said excitedly.

Luffy was faster than Karoo, which Vivi found surprising, but I expected it.

Luffy stopped unexpectedly at a small stream we passed by. Karoo skid across the wet grass and came to a halt.

"Look, look!" Luffy said. "It's a shellfish that looks like a squid!"

Vivi and I dismounted Karoo and looked into the water. I laughed at the weird creature and said, "Yeah! It kinda does!"

Moments later, huge booms that sounded almost like footsteps sounded from miles away.

"Wh-what's that…?" I asked.

"Ooh! Let's go see!" he said, running towards the booms.

Vivi and I quickly mounted Karoo and ran after Luffy. There was a gigantic long-necked dinosaur eating the leaves off of the tallest trees in the area.

"Why is there a Sea King on land?" he asked, confused.

"I think it's a dinosaur, not a Sea King…" I said.

"Cool!" he said.

"This must be an ancient island!" Vivi said, stunned at the sight in front of her.

_A dinosaur! A real-life dinosaur! _I thought._ Should I be concerned? Probably… Am I? Not right now, at least._

"This island must be stuck in the time of the dinosaurs!" Vivi said. "Because sea travel is so difficult in the Grand Line, some islands haven't been in touch with others in years! All have completely unique cultures. Some are extremely sophisticated, while others that remain in the same form as they were for tens of thousands of years."

While Vivi was speaking, Luffy had already stretched his arms onto the dinosaur's neck in fascination, yelling "So cool!" as he rocketed up.

"Luffy-san!" I yelled.

The dinosaur didn't seem to notice Luffy when he slapped onto its lower neck.

"Don't jump on it!" Vivi scolded.

"But it's a nice view!" he said. "We should have lunch up here."

"It's dangerous, Luffy-san!" I yelled. "You should probably get down!"

"I'll be fine!" he said, sure of himself. "There're huge holes over there! That's a weird landscape…"

"Forget about the landscape!" Vivi said. "Just come down!"

But he wasn't listening, as usual. He hung over the dinosaur's eye and asked it a question. When he got impatient, he stretched him arms around its throat and pointed towards were the 'huge holes' were.

"Who would do something like that?!" Vivi asked.

"That's our captain…" I said. "He may be really strong, but he's very much an airhead."

The dinosaur groaned very loudly and not long after, more giant footsteps came out way.

"I think it might've called to its friends…" I said.

Something huge stepped right next to us. Vivi and I both screamed. "I think you're right!" she said, terrified.

There were at least seven more of the long-necked dinosaurs, along with the one Luffy assaulted.

"Luffy-san!" Vivi yelled. "Come down already!"

Instead of listening, he hopped on top of the tallest one for a better view of the island.

He hopped from one dinosaur to the next because they started trying to eat him. Vivi and I watched in awe and fear.

He slid down one of the dinosaurs' backs and said, "Hey guys! It's fun! You should try this!"

Vivi and I looked at each other with appalled expression. "Is… Is he serious?" she asked.

I nodded and said, "Probably…"

He finally hopped onto the tallest one. This dinosaur flung him into the air and ate him.

"He's been eaten!" Vivi said.

But that's when a giant human came running in with a sword and sliced open its throat. The head of the dinosaur, along with a portion of the neck plopped to the ground. Luffy fell out and was caught in the hand of the giant.

Vivi and I just stared in bewilderment of what just happened.

The giant laughed happily and said with a booming voice, "I was watching. What a lively human, grappling with longnecks in this jungle. You're the first guest in a long time." Luffy asked him a question, but we were too far away to hear. "You're asking me if I'm human?" He laughed again. "I'm Dorry, the Elbaf's strongest warrior!"

"That's… that's a giant…" Vivi said.

"Yeah…" I said.

"We're getting out of here," Vivi said. She patted Karoo and said, "Come on, Karoo. We need to go!"

But Karoo didn't budge. He was either so excited he was frozen, or he was so scared he was frozen, but I guessed the latter.

Luffy pointed to us and the giant laughed. "I'll invite you guys to my home!" he said.

Vivi and I looked at each other in worriment.

The giant bent over and picked Karoo along with us up and Luffy jumped onto the hand we were being held in.

"This is so cool!" he said, looking all around.

I looked around at the island and saw the 'huge holes' that Luffy was talking about. It almost looked like the skeleton of an animal. But it was far too big to be anything that was alive.

_Must be a mountain with caves._ I thought.

* * *

A couple minutes later, back at Dorry's home, we were laughing and Luffy was eating the biggest piece of meat I think I've ever seen. Vivi and I ate our pirate lunches, but Luffy gave his to Dorry.

"This is good meat, giant old guy!" Luffy said.

"Your pirate lunch thing tastes good, but it's a little too small for me," he said, laughing.

"'course it's good!" Luffy said. "That's a special lunch the chef on my pirate ship made!" He took another bite of the meat and said, "Oh yeah. Why are you here all alone, giant old guy? Isn't there a village somewhere?"

"Yeah, there is a village," he said. "It's a warrior's village called Elbaf. It's somewhere in the Grand Line. But there're rules in the village. If we start a fight in the village and both sides can't back off, we are judged by Elbaf's god. He gives divine protection to the righteous one and lets him survive." He paused and said, "I caused a disturbance, and this island is currently the site for a duel between a certain man and myself. Only one can survive; the righteous one. But we haven't been able to settle this for about 100 years!" He laughed casually, like it was no big deal at all.

All of our mouths dropped. "100 years?!" Vivi asked.

"It's nothing surprise, since our life span is at least three times as long as yours," he said.

"But is there any point to continue fighting? It's been 100 years… Can't you just talk it out?" I asked. "It's better than someone dying."

He laughed and said, "That would be helpful if we remembered the reason we're fighting!"

"You don't remember?" Vivi asked.

"Makes sense…" I said. "They've been fighting for so long, they don't even know why; it's just for their pride."

"That's right, little lady!" he said, laughing still, but he stopped when the volcano boomed.

"Well, time to go…" he said, getting up. His face turned serious.

_Maybe the volcano signals when they go fight each other…_ I thought.

He started running into the jungle with his shield and sword in hand. The two giants started fighting each other.

Luffy gasped and fell backwards in awe.

"What? What's wrong?" Vivi asked him.

"What a huge duel!" he said.

* * *

The duel was breathtaking to watch. The ground shook in reaction to their footsteps. We watched them fight for a while, before it ended in another draw.

By the end of the duel I wondered how on earth the island was still floating.

Dorry came back to us with three barrels of alcohol in hand, claiming that the other giant, Broggy had given it to him. It turns out, Nami and Usopp had given it to him.

"Hah!" Luffy said. "They said they wouldn't get off the ship, but they really do like adventure after all!"

"Then you could also say that I got this alcohol from you," Dorry said.

He also told us that it would take a year for the log on this island to be stored.

"Didn't you notice the human skulls lying around?" he asked.

I did, but I didn't want to accept that they were real.

"Those who come to this island die before the log is stored in most cases," he continued. "Some become dinosaur food, some die of starvation, some try to attack us and are killed. They all die…" He sighed. "It seems a year on this island is too long for humans."

"What're we gonna do?" Vivi asked, very concerned. "Even if we could survive a year, I need to get to Alabasta immediately!"

"I'd get bored if we stay here for a year," Luffy said. "Isn't there another way, giant old guy?"

"Well, we do have an eternal pose, but it's to our hometown, Elbaf," he said. "We're basically fighting for the eternal pose. Do you wanna try to take it by force?"

"Nope," Luffy said. "That's not where we wanna go. We just wanna go to the island after this one."

"Yeah," I said.

"Why not go forward randomly?" he asked. "If you're lucky, you'll get there."

Luffy laughed and said, "Maybe we'll do that! We could actually get there!"

Dorry laughed, too. "Come to think of it, there was someone who left before the log was stored…" he said.

"What happened to him?" I asked.

"How should I know?" he said, laughing.

Luffy and he laughed for the longest time, but Vivi looked very mad.

"Vivi-san…" I said. "Are you ok?"

"I don't understand how they can be so calm about this!" she said.

I sighed and said, "Don't think about it so much. Everything will turn out fine, I promise."

She took a deep breath and smiled. "Hearing that is refreshing, Magnolia-san," she said.

Dorry went to take a sip of the third barrel when all of a sudden…

**BOOM!**

The whole barrel exploded in his mouth! Dorry fell back on the rock he was sitting on.

We all stood up, in shock and confusion of what just happened.

"Giant old guy!" Luffy yelled.

He stretched his arms onto the giant's hat and hopped onto him.

"It exploded in his stomach!" Vivi said. "His opponent must've laid the explosive!"

"No, that's not right!" I said. "They wouldn't do something like that if they've been fighting for 100 years!"

"Yeah! No way he'd do something like that!" Luffy said, hopping down.

Dorry sat up, gripping his sword and said, "It wasn't Broggy. We're proud warriors of Elbaf. Who else besides you should I be suspicious of?"

Karoo panicked and ran away.

_He… He suspects us?!_ I thought.

"Let's get out of here!" Vivi said. "It's probably no use saying anything to him!"

"It's probably no use even if we run," Luffy said. He took off his hat and handed it to Vivi. "Hold this and stand back."

"But-"

I grabbed Vivi's hand and walked a little ways away from the angry giant and the even angrier man.

"Why did you-"

"He's the captain," I said. "We follow his orders. If he says to stand back, we do so."

She bit her lip and looked at the two. "Dorry-san's insides are in bad shape… He's in no condition to fight!"

The giant swung his sword with all his strength towards Luffy, which Luffy dodged. He started running up Dorry's sword.

"Gum-Gum-"

Dorry slapped him away with a swing of his shield. Luffy came plummeting down into the ground. He sat up and stretched his arms all the way across the clearing to a tree and rocketed over.

Dorry coughed up blood. Luffy came zooming back, yelling, "Gum-Gum Rocket!"

He slammed into Dorry's stomach and the giant seemed to fall over, coughing up more blood. He regained his balance, dropped his sword, and stepped on Luffy.

Vivi and I cringed in fear that our captain had lost. "Luffy-san!" Vivi and I yelled.

"So he has… the powers of a Devil Fruit…" Dorry said, falling to his knees. He crashed to the ground, defeated.

Vivi and I ran to Luffy, who had just sat up.

"Are you alright?!" Vivi asked, handing him his hat back.

"How's the giant old guy?" he asked.

"Probably ok…" she said. "This was probably for the better. He might not've calmed down."

"I'm angry!" Luffy said. "This wasn't the other giant's fault and my friends would never do a stupid thing like this!"

"Then who would…" Vivi said.

"Someone else must be here…" I said. "That's the only explanation."

Luffy nodded, furrowing his brow in rage.

The volcano erupted once again, Broggy and Dorry's signal to fight.

Dorry tried to stand up, having immense difficulty.

"Wait, giant old guy!" Luffy said. "Don't go!"

"You need to keep still!" Vivi said.

"Don't push yourself!" I said. "You're gravely injured."

"I, Warrior Dorry, am here… At the very least… I will fight to uphold the name of Elbaf!" he said, standing up.

He went over to the cave and picked it up with great difficulty.

"What's he doing…?" I asked.

"Awesome!" Luffy said. "He picked up the giant rock!"

Vivi backed away, holding my hand and said, "Luffy-san…"

"What?" I asked.

He dropped the rock on Luffy. Only his torso was free. "What're you doing, giant old guy?!" Luffy yelled. "Move this rock! Hey!"

Huffing and puffing, Dorry picked up his sword and walked away. "I'm sorry I suspected you," he said. "This is the judgment given by Elbaf, the god of war. I didn't have his divine protection."

"That has nothing to do with this!" Luffy yelled. "If a god told you to die, would you?! This duel has been interfered with! A duel that's been messed with isn't a duel anymore!"

"You've only lived merely ten or twenty years," Dorry said. "You wouldn't understand the grand words of Elbaf!"

"Who gives a crap about that?! Hey! Move this thing! Hey! Giant old guy!" Luffy yelled, backing on the rock.

_If only Vivi hadn't… I could've… Luffy! _I thought._ This is my fault…_

"We have to stop this fight!" Vivi said.

"What can we do?" I asked. "The only one who probably could is Luffy-san, and he's stuck!"

"Who is it?!" Luffy yelled furiously. "Who's putting a damper on the giant's fight?!"

"Oh yeah…" Vivi said. "Karoo's gone."

"Luffy-san!" I said. "I'll try and pull you out!"

I held out my hands and he grabbed them. I started pulling with all my might, but he didn't even budge a bit.

"It's no use, Maggie…" he said. "I'm stuck."

That's when Usopp came running out of the forest. "Luffy! Luffy! Luffy! Luffy!" he yelled. "Terrible news! A dinosaur ate Nami!"

I gasped.

"SERIOUSLY?!" he yelled.

"We were running through the jungle to get away from it, and then suddenly she was gone!" he said, panicking.

"But that doesn't mean she was eaten…" I said. "She might've gotten lost! Or something else…"

"If people from Baroque Works have followed us onto this island, then she might've gotten captured. It makes sense why only Nami-san was targeted and not you," Vivi said.

"EHHH?! Baroque Works is on the island?!" he yelled, panicking even more. "But why didn't they target me?"

"You aren't on their hit list," I said.

"And that alcohol might've been meant for us, too!" Vivi said.

Luffy gasped.

"Alcohol? What alcohol?" Usopp asked.

"Broggy brought your alcohol to Dorry," Vivi said. "When Dorry drank it, it exploded in his stomach."

"And now they're fighting! Dorry-san's injured!" I said. "It's not fair! He'll lose!"

"He up to fight Broggy like that?!" Usopp asked.

"I tried to stop him, but I wound up like this instead!" Luffy said.

"You can't be serious…" he said. "Those two've fought evenly for 100 years! It's like, the most pride-filled battle in the world! They can't settle the fight like this!"

"Exactly!" I said.

There was a loud crash in the distance. We all whirled our heads to see what happened. There was blood being splattered into the sky.

I gasped and knew that Dorry had lost. "It's too late…" I said.

Luffy started banging his head wildly on the ground.

"Luffy!" Usopp said.

"WHO WAS IT?!" he yelled, completely furious. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

"I don't know who we're dealing with, but I'll go take care of them myself!" Usopp said, determined.

"I'll go with you!" Vivi said.

"Me too!" I said.

"No need for that!" said a man off into the distance.

It was Mr. 5 holding Karoo along with Ms. Valentine!

"You guys!" Luffy said.

Vivi gasped as he flung Karoo onto the ground. She ran for her beloved bird and said, "Karoo! Why would you do something like this? He has nothing to do with you!"

"Exactly," he said coldly. "The only one we considered dangerous was the straw hat man. We planned to lure you three out by having this bird squawk, but he refused. That's when Straw Hat took himself out of the picture. We have no use for that thing anymore."

Ms. Valentine laughed and said, "What a stupid bird!"

"Why you…!" Vivi yelled angrily.

"Are you the ones who put a bomb in the alcohol?!" Usopp asked.

"Yes, that was us. Who're you?" Mr. 5 asked. "Is he on the list?"

"No. He must be their friend. But let's make him disappear, too!" Ms. Valentine said.

"So you interfered with the giants' duel!" Usopp said angrily.

"I'll kick their asses!" Luffy said, struggling to get out from under the giant rock.

Vivi stood up and took out two strings with blades attached to the end and swung them on her fingers. "You guys are going down!" she yelled, full of rage.

"So you intend to struggle, Ms. Wednesday?" Mr. 8 said.

"You don't stand a chance against us Officer Agents," Ms. Valentine said.

"Fire Star!" Usopp said, shooting the attack from his trusty sling shot.

I dug out the two pairs of handcuffs, attached them to each of my wrists and got out my dagger.

_Let's do this!_ I thought.

But right as I was ready, Usopp exploded!

"What a pity…" Ms. Valentine said, floating in the air, weightlessly.

"Usopp!" Luffy yelled.

"10,000 Kilo Press!" she said, plummeting down on top of him.

"Tick Tock!" I yelled, stopping time.

I grabbed Usopp out of the way and hid him behind a nearby tree. I ran back over to where I was standing and said, "Un-Tock!"

Time started again and Ms. Valentine smashed only the ground.

When I looked over to Vivi, she was being held by the neck by Mr. 8.

"Vivi-san!" I yelled, running over to help her.

"There's no need to be so upset," he said. "We're not going to kill you just yet."

Ms. Valentine grabbed me by the hands and brought me to my knees. I couldn't move!

"We only came to abduct you two," he said. "On Mr. 3's orders."

"The Wax-Wax Fruit man?!" Vivi asked.

"Yes," he said. "He's a candle man who controls the wax he secretes form his body."

_Logia… _I thought._ We're definitely in trouble!_

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	10. The Day Gets Worse

Mr. 5 had Vivi by the throat and Ms. Valentine had me by the arms.

"Did you honestly think you could escape from Baroque Works?" Mr. 5 asked. He flicked something at Luffy and it exploded.

"Luffy-san!" I yelled.

"Especially when someone with a thirty million bounty winds up like that?" Ms. Valentine mocked.

"You wannabe pirates should never have stuck your noses into delicate issues," Mr. 5 said. "We've already captured your swordsman friend and the other girl."

"Nami-chan! Zoro-san!" I said.

"You caught Zoro?" Luffy asked. "Then you guys are gonna get cut down!"

"Oh? You still talk big even after one of my Nose Fancy's to the face?" he asked.

"You can't hurt me with that! I'm gonna kick you guys' asses!" Luffy said, spitting in his direction.

Mr. 5 passed Vivi over to Ms. Valentine and she held her by the arms as well. Mr. 5 walked over towards Luffy and kicked him in the face, while it exploded.

"LUFFY-SAN!" Vivi and I yelled.

He kicked him a second time, and a third. I stopped counting after ten kicks.

"Luffy-san…" I said, on the verge of tears.

Mr. 5 grabbed Vivi and held her by the arms. "Let's go, Ms. Valentine," he said.

They forced us to walk with them into the forest.

We came into a separate clearing where a man and a small girl were standing in front of the other giant, Broggy. But Broggy was lying on the ground, being held down by the candle man's wax.

Mr. 3 laughed and said, "Are you aware that the large bounties on your heads from long ago come to 200 million Berries in total?"

"So that's what you're after!" Vivi said.

Ms. Valentine tightened her grip on my arms, causing me to wince and said, "We brought them."

"The company's traitor and the stupid little girl that got involved," Mr. 5 said.

"What took so long?" Mr. 3 asked. "I was getting tired of waiting."

"How could you place bombs in Dorry's alcohol?!" Vivi asked, furiously. "You're a monster!"

Broggy's eyes widened in realization that it was all a farce. He'd only won because of Mr. 3.

"Wretched girl, giving our tricks away…" Mr. 3 said. "Well, there's nothing you can do now, anyway. Candle Lock!"

Mr. 5 jumped away from Vivi, wax locking her legs together and she fell to the ground. He did the same to me. I quickly put my dagger away.

Mr. 3 laughed in delight. "Mr. 5! Bring the swordsman and the girl!" he said. "We're about to begin." I couldn't see what was happening, but he yelled, "Extra Big Candle Set!"

Nami and Zoro were thrown to the ground, too.

"Set the candles up quickly!" Mr. 3 ordered Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine.

"Nami-san. Mr. Bushido!" Vivi said.

"Vivi! Maggie-chan? What happened?! Weren't you guys with Luffy?!" she asked.

"He's kinda stuck under a big rock," I said.

"I took care of him myself," Mr. 5 said. "He won't be coming out."

* * *

We were taken up onto a huge cake-looking structure made of wax. They took off our restraints and placed our feet in the wax, so that we were stuck.

Vivi was on the end, Zoro was next to her, I was next to Zoro, and Nami was next to me.

Since my hands were free, I took off my handcuffs because they were hurting my wrists. I put them back into my bag.

"Welcome, my friends, to my service set!" Mr. 3 said, bowing.

"So this is how it feels to be a candle stuck in a cake…" Zoro said.

"What's that thing spinning up there?" Nami asked.

Zoro tried to cut the wax with his swords, but it was too hard.

Something the color of snow started raining down.

Mr. 3 laughed and said, "May you enjoy my Candle Service! The wax haze falling from above you will eventually change you into wax figures! You'll be my perfect human models! Now die, in the name of art."

"Screw that!" Nami said. "Why do we have to turn into your works of art?!" She looked over to Broggy and said, "Broggy-san! Quit sitting there and go on a rampage! You're gonna get turned into a wax figure too, you know!"

I dug into my bag for my dagger, panicking. _I can't die here… I can't die here!_ I thought. _No way am I going to die here!_

I squatted down, rather awkwardly due to my legs being stuck, and started jabbing it into the wax cake.

_I'm going to get out of here! _I thought._ We'll all get out of here!_

"It's not going to work," Zoro said, looking at me. "If I can't cut it with my sword, you can't do it with that."

Broggy broke free from the wax, but Mr. 5 shot explosives at him, that knocked him back down. Mr. 3 encased him in more wax, ensuring he couldn't escape again.

"Can't move now, can you?" he teased the giant.

I kept stabbing the wax cake with my dagger, sure that I'd be able to chip my way out.

"Now then, accelerate Candle Set!" he said. "Turn these people into wax figures!"

The wax haze started raining down even harder. I coughed wax as I kept lancing the wax beneath us.

"Yes! Yes! Just try to look like you're in as much pain as possible!" Mr. 3 said.

_Sadistic jerk-face… _I thought.

"Scream, holler, and try to get out all you want!" he said. "It's not going to work!"

I could feel my back starting to stiffen. The wax haze was already hardening on me. I stood up, breaking some of it off and used my dagger to peel off the wax from my back.

"My hand won't move!" Nami said. "Can't we do something?!"

"I'm already turning stiff!" Vivi said. "What do we do?!"

"Zoro! Do something!" Nami pleaded.

He looked over to the giant and said, "Let's kick their asses together." He brought out two of his swords.

"You're gonna cut off your own legs?!" Nami asked. "Quit joking around!"

"It's not a joke," he said. "It's the only way out. What're you guys gonna do?"

"I'm going to scrape off the wax," I said. "I'm not going to die!"

"Oh?" said Mr. 3, regarding my statement. "You won't be able to keep up with my Candle Service!" He his hand towards me and grabbed the dagger out of my hand with wax and brought it back over to him. "Well, anyway, I'll take this from you, just in case."

A flash of pure rage pulsed through my body. "Give that back…" I said. "GIVE IT BACK!" I screamed. "Give it back! Give it back! Give it back! Give it back!"

"I'd prefer not to," he said, throwing it to the ground and kicking it away. "Oops."

I felt like I was about to burst into flames of rage. "GIVE THAT BACK TO ME!" I yelled, with tears swimming down my face.

"Why's it so important?" Nami asked. "It's just a dagger."

"My dad gave that to me!" I said. "I don't care if I hate him; he gave it to me and said to use it to protect myself! Give it back, right now!"

Mr. 3 ignored me.

I could feel my face starting to become stiff from the wax haze. I scratched it all off with my finger nails and started scratching off the wax from my arms as well.

Right as Zoro was about to cut off his legs, Luffy, Usopp and Karoo ran into the clearing.

"Let's do it, Usopp!" Luffy yelled.

"Yeah!" he said.

"Bird!" Luffy yelled. Karoo honked in agreement.

"Luffy! Usopp!" Nami said happily.

I was so happy to see them, I was speechless.

"Bust those guys up so much, they lose their original forms and send them flying somewhere far off!" Nami yelled.

"Yeah, I will!" Luffy agreed. "These guys spoiled the giant old guys' duel!"

I started scratching my arms and face again. Wax started getting stuck in my fingernails. I picked it out and continued scratching.

"Break the pillar first, Luffy!" Nami said. "We're about to turn into wax figures!"

"Oh, you're in trouble?" he asked.

"No, there was no problem at all," Zoro said.

"You're legs…" I said looking down. Blood was spilling off our layer of the cake.

"I was about halfway through," he said. "But it's not a problem."

"How is that no problem?!" Nami asked.

"Well, for now. Can you break this pillar for us, Luffy?" he asked. "I'll leave the rest to you."

"Alright, no problem!" he said.

I continued scratching off all the wax and picked it out of my fingernails to continue scraping.

Zoro stuck his sword in the air.

"What are you doing…?" Nami asked.

"If I'm going to be solidified, I prefer this pose," he said.

I laughed and continued scratching the wax off of my arms and face.

"Keep scratching like that and you'll start bleeding," Zoro said, looking at me.

"I don't care," I said. "I'm not going to die here."

"Well, if you guys are going to do a pose, might wanna start now," he said.

"Don't be silly," Nami said. "It's a stupid idea."

"Mr. Bushido! Please be more serious about this!" Vivi said.

"I'm always serious," he replied.

I completely focused on scratching all the wax off before is became hard. Parts of my arms were already getting stiff, but I was doing better than the rest of them.

That's when I had an idea.

"Tick Tock," I whispered, stopping time.

I scratched off more and more wax until it was almost all off of my arms and face.

"Un-Tock," I whispered.

Zoro was right. I did start bleeding. My arms were red and they were starting to bleed from all the skin I was scratching to get the wax off. It was starting to get very painful to keep scratching, especially on my face.

Before I noticed what was going on, the pillar holding the giant spinning thing above us broke and made it come closer to us, speeding up the wax haze solidification process exponentially.

I panicked. My skin was raw and bleeding, my fingers were aching, and now I wouldn't be able to keep up with the falling wax.

That's when I gave up trying to scratch it all off. Like Zoro, I decided to do a pose. I put on I put a cuff on each hand, leaving the other cuff open and put my hands on my waist.

I started watching the battle between Luffy and Mr. 3.

That's when I had another idea.

"Zoro-san?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"Remember when you threw that plate at me and I stopped it?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Do you think it would work with the spinning thing?" I asked.

Nami gasped and said, "You could do that?!"

"I don't know…" I said. "But it's worth a try, right?"

"What? What are you going to do?" Vivi asked.

"I'm going to stop the spinning thing," I said. "Or at least try…"

From the silence, I figured she was confused.

I racked my brain to figure out how I stopped the plate. Was it some sort of special technique or was it just a weird miracle?

I looked up at the spinning candle-holder above us and bit my lip.

"That's much bigger than a plate…" I said.

"You can do it!" Nami said. "Go Maggie-chan! Go Maggie-chan!"

I took a deep breath and focused on the rhythm of the spinning wax above us. It was about a half a second per rotation.

"Tick Stop!" I said.

The giant spinning candle holder actually froze in time.

"I… I did it!" I said. "I actually did it!"

"Nice one!" Zoro praised.

"How… How did you?!" Vivi asked. "You have Devil Fruit powers?!"

"Yes, she does!" Nami said happily. "Now hurry up and break this thing Luffy!"

"No," he said.

I saw that Mr. 3 had been defeated and was lying on the ground.

"Quit joking around and hurry!" Nami said.

"I don't know how long I can hold this thing…" I said.

"No," he said again.

"This isn't the time to be acting stupid!" Zoro said. "You heard her! She won't be able to hold it for very long!"

"Luffy-san, please!" Vivi asked.

"What should I do? I don't feel like saving you guys…" he said.

"Luffy-san…?" I asked, breathing hard from the strain of freezing it. "What's wrong with you?"

"Colors Trap," said the little girl, named Ms. Golden Week. She was Mr. 3's partner.

"I can't hold it forever!" I said.

"I know… I know, but…" he said. "But I don't feel like saving you…"

"Why are you saying that?!" Nami asked. "We're gonna become wax figures if Maggie-chan doesn't keep holding that thing! Do you understand?!"

"Yeah, but for some reason I just can't get motivated," he said.

"This isn't a motivation problem!" Nami yelled.

Usopp ran into the forest with Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine chasing after him.

"Ms. Golden Week! This is your doing!" Vivi accused.

"Colors Trap: Betrayal Black," said the girl. That's when I noticed he was standing on a weird black symbol. "Touch the black paint, and you'll want to betray your friends, no matter what they say."

"Then whatever you do, Luffy-san, don't you dare step off that black paint!" I yelled.

"Yeah!" Vivi said. "Don't move a step! We don't want you to save us!"

"What the heck are you two doing?!" Nami asked.

My breathing became more like wheezing for air. "I can't hold it for much longer…" I said.

"No," Luffy said, stepping off the black paint.

"I get it," Zoro said. "You made him do the opposite of what you said."

"Luffy-san, hurry!" Vivi pleaded.

"I can't…" I said, taking in a huge breath and letting the spinning candle holder back into reality. I took a lot of huge breaths and felt very week. "I'm sorry… I can't hold it anymore…"

"Alright!" Luffy said. "I'll save you right now!" He wound up his fist, getting ready to punch it, but he started laughing uncontrollably. "Never mind you guys! I just wanna laugh!"

"Colors Tarp: Laughter Yellow," said Ms. Golden Week, holding a brush and pallet.

Luffy fell to the ground, laughing so hard. The yellow mark was on the back of his shirt.

"Luffy! Hurry and take off your shirt!" Nami suggested.

"Nah!" he said, still laughing. "I just feel like laughing!"

"This is bad…" Zoro said. "We probably won't last a minute with it raining down like this!"

"I'm… I'm sorry…" I said.

"You did your best," he said. "And it really did help. Don't apologize."

I smiled weakly and felt my body go stiff in the pose I wanted. I tried to move my arms, but they wouldn't budge. I really couldn't move!

The wax haze was already clouding my eye that wasn't covered with an eye patch. Pretty soon, I would lose all visibility.

Usopp came bursting in with Karroo, running away from his two pursuers. He accidentally ran into Luffy, which smudged the paint on his back.

He got up and yelled at Ms. Golden Week, "Hey! Knock it off, you jerk!"

"Was Laughter Yellow funny?" she asked.

"Shut up, stupid!" he said. "Anyways, I'm gonna break that pumpkin! Gum-Gum!"

Ms. Golden Week put a red mark on the ground and said, "Colors Trap: Bullfight Red!"

"Bazooka!" Luffy yelled, hitting the red mark.

"You're not allowed to break it," she said. "Mr. 3 would be mad."

"What is this?!" Luffy yelled.

"Just like bulls rush to attack red, you feel the urge to attack that Bullfight Red mark," she explained.

"This definitely not his kind of fight…" Nami said. "All his power is useless!"

"Colors Trap: Tranquil Green!" she said, painting a green mark on his back.

He sat down with her on a picnic blanket and drank tea calmly.

"What's gonna happen to us…?" I asked.

No one wanted to reply, for fear of knowing the answer.

My eyes and mouth were finally covered with wax. I was completely covered, now. I couldn't even breathe.

_Not good… Not good! Not good! _I thought._ Ok, remain calm. Just hold your breath until something happens. You're not going to die, Magnolia. Not here. Not now. Someone will save you. Someone's coming to save all of us._

My lungs were already begging for air. I just hoped that I would last until someone actually saved us.

* * *

I could hear faint voices from somewhere dark. I gasped for air and it came. Where ever I was, it was very, very hot. It was almost like I was in the middle of a furnace. I couldn't see anything.

"Flaming… Oni Giri!" I heard Zoro say from somewhere close by.

I could feel myself falling into something hot and liquid-y, but I didn't know what it was. My muscles ached and my arms and face still hurt from the scratching. It was getting too hot, almost too hot to bear.

"Where's Magnolia-san?!" I heard Vivi say.

"Don't tell me she's still in the fire…!" Nami said.

I tried to find my voice, but I wouldn't come.

That's when someone grabbed me and took me away from the horrible inferno.

"Got her," said Zoro.

"Maggie-chan!" I heard Nami said. "Are you alright?!"

I nodded my head and said, "Y-y-yes."

There was still something hot and sticking on my face. I wiped it off and I could see! It was wax that made me temporarily blind.

"Thank you, Zoro-san," I said.

"No problem," he said.

Broggy sat up and said, "Only two foes left."

"Luffy chased after them," Nami said. "He'll take care of it."

When Luffy did come back, Broggy was crying so hard, it was about to form a new river. He was extremely sad that his dear friend Dorry was dead by his hands.

But Dorry stood up.

"Dorry! How are you-?"

"It seems I blacked out…" Dorry said, using his sword for support.

Broggy hugged his friend so tightly that Dorry complained it was hurting his wounds. They both thanked their god that he was still alive.

They were in such high spirits, that they actually threatened to fight each other again.

I smiled at the two, happy that they were both ok.

They invited us all to celebrate with them.

Sanji eventually caught up with us. He told us that he talked to Mr. 0 via Transponder Snail.

"You talked to the boss?!" Vivi asked.

"Yeah. I found this weird hideout in the jungle," he said. "He seemed to think I was Mr. 3, so I told him I eliminated everyone."

"So he thinks we're dead?" Vivi asked.

"We're finally free of people chasing us, but we can't go anywhere!" Usopp said, partially happy.

_My dad's going to think I'm dead…_ I thought.

I didn't really know how I felt about that. On one hand, I was happy that he wouldn't try to look for me, but on the other I felt bad because he would think he's all alone and the last one left in our family.

Sanji brought out an Eternal Pose to Alabasta. Everyone cheered for him. Vivi even hugged him.

"Come on, Captain," Nami said. "We shouldn't be lounging around now that we know where to go."

"Alright, then," Luffy said. "Giant old guys, we're gonna go now!"

We all headed off towards the _Going Merry_. Usopp promised to visit Elbaf someday.

Zoro and Sanji started arguing about their hunting contest. Each was sure that their dinosaur was bigger than the others. I chuckled to myself as I climbed up to the crow's nest. I sat down and relaxed.

"Oh wait!" I said. I almost fell off the rope ladder while climbing down. "I forgot my dagger!"

I ran off the boat, only to be stopped by Luffy holding the back of my shirt. "Where're you going, Maggie?" he asked. "We're about to set sail!"

"I forgot my dagger in the clearing!" I said. "I need to go get it!"

"Alright," he said, letting me go.

I ran into the forest and into the clearing and picked up my dagger. I put it back in its sheath and into my bag. I took a deep breath and ran back to the ship. I went back up to the crow's nest and rested my head against the wooden railing.

_What a long day…_ I thought.

I yawned, closed my eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	11. Sickness and Injury

Sanji's voice woke me up a couple minutes later.

"Magnolia-chan~" he called. "Magnolia-chan~" I rubbed my eyes and looked over the edge of the crow's nest. He was holding sweets. "I made a snack for you!"

I climbed down the rope ladder and thanked him. Vivi, Nami and I all sat around and ate the sweets.

Zoro was lifting weights and Luffy, Usopp and Karoo were in the kitchen, eating the stuff Sanji had made for them.

Vivi was holding the Eternal Pose and looking at it nostalgically.

"Vivi… Sorry, I think I'm gonna…" Nami said. "I'm gonna go lie down…"

"That's alright," Vivi said. "I'll keep an eye on our course. You should get some rest."

Nami struggled to get up.

"Are you ok, Nami-chan?" I asked. She didn't look very well.

She collapsed to the ground.

I dropped the pastry from my hand as I rushed over to her with Vivi. She felt Nami's forehead.

"Are you alright?" Vivi asked. "Everyone, come here! This is bad!"

"What's wrong, Vivi?" Luffy asked with a full mouth from the kitchen.

"Nami-san has a terrible fever!" she said.

Everyone crowded around her.

Luffy carried her into our room and set her on the bed.

"Is Nami-san gonna die? Is she, Vivi-chan?" Sanji asked, crying.

Vivi squished out the water from a towel and placed it on Nami's forehead. "It's most likely the climate," she said. "One of the problems all sailors who enter the Grand Line run into is illness caused by abnormal weather. There are countless stories of notoriously strong pirates dying from this."

I gasped and said, "Nami-chan…"

"Is there anyone on this ship with any medical knowledge at all?" Vivi asked.

Usopp and Luffy pointed to Vivi.

"But eating meat makes sickness go away! Right, Sanji?" Luffy said.

"I can make some basic food meant for sick people, but that's entirely different from any medical knowledge," he said. "And there's no guarantee it would work. Besides, I normally put 100 times more care into Nami-san, Vivi-chan and Magnolia-chan's meals than I do with yours… As long as I'm the cook, there'll be no problems whatsoever in terms of balanced diets."

Vivi took her temperature. "Fourty degrees C?!" she exclaimed. "Her fever's gone up again!"

"There'll be doctors when we get to Alabasta, right?" I asked.

"How much longer will it take, Vivi?" Usopp asked.

"I don't know, but one week is out of the question…" she said. "This may be a life-threatening illness."

"Nami's gonna die?!" Luffy asked.

Everyone started freaking out.

"Be quiet!" Vivi hushed.

"Let's find a doctor to help Nami!" Luffy said.

"Ok, ok! Just calm down!" Vivi said. "You're going to make her even worse!"

With that, everyone shut up.

"No," Nami said, sitting up.

"Nami-chan?" I asked.

She took the wet towel off her forehead and said, "In my desk drawer, there's a newspaper…"

Vivi went to go fetch it. She read over the various articles and gasped when she saw one of them. "No… This can't be!"

"What's wrong, Vivi-san?" I asked, looked at the newspaper from behind her.

"300,000 royal soldiers defected to the Resistance…" she said. "It was originally a cold war with 600,000 royal soldiers and 400,000 Resistance soldiers. But now it's changed!"

"The uprising is finally getting serious," Nami said. "The paper's from three days ago. We can't change our speed, so I didn't want to worry you by showing you that… Understand, Luffy?"

"Things seem very bad!" he said.

Yeah, he didn't really get it at all.

"But you still need to see a doctor," Usopp said.

"I'm fine," she said. "The thermometer must be broken, or something. It's sunstroke or something. We don't need a doctor. I'll get better in no time." She stood up and walked to the door. "Let's just head straight for Alabasta as planned."

"So she's better now?" Luffy asked as soon as she walked out.

"She's acting like it's no big deal…" I said.

Vivi was still looked worriedly at the newspaper. Zoro called out for all the guys.

I put my hand on Vivi's shoulder and said, "We'll get there in time. I just know it, Vivi-san."

She stood up with a calm look on her face and said, "I've made up my mind."

She stormed out of the room and up to the deck. I followed her.

"I have a favor to ask of all you," she said. Everyone gathered around. "I know it's not my place to ask you this as a passenger, but my homeland is in a terrible state. We need to get to Alabasta as fast as we can, without wasting a single moment."

"Of course, Vivi," Nami said. "That's what we promised."

"So we need to find an island with a doctor as soon as we can," she said.

Luffy smiled and said, "Yeah! Sounds like a plan!"

"Well said, Vivi-chan!" Sanji said. "I've fallen for you all over again!"

"You got guts," Zoro said.

Nami clung to the railing as she walked over to Vivi. "Sorry, Vivi… I think I am kinda… in trouble…" she said.

Vivi helped her stand up straight and said, "Come on, Magnolia-san. Let's get Nami-san to bed."

I nodded and took Nami's other arm.

"WHAT IS THAT?!" Luffy yelled.

I looked over to the direction he was pointing. There was a huge cyclone made out of water off the side. It started pouring down rain and lighting cracked overhead.

"That's the direction we were just sailing in!" Usopp said.

Vivi looked at Nami with awe. "I've never seen such a navigator before…" she said.

"Alright! Let's go find a doctor!" Luffy cheered.

"Yeah!" we all replied.

We sailed into safer waters as Vivi and I placed Nami on her bed. I put a new damp towel on her forehead.

"I think I can take it from here," Vivi said.

"Ok," I said.

When I got out onto the deck, it was snowing.

I sighed and went back to go get my coat. I climbed up into the crow's nest and bushed away the snow.

It didn't get much colder as the hours passed, but the snow was definitely becoming annoying to brush away. I kept looking all around for islands to stop by.

"See any doctors?" Luffy called up to me.

I laughed and said, "No, not yet." But I saw a figure in the ocean right after that. It was a weird looking man dressed like a court jester. "Wait, there's a guy over there… He's standing on the water!"

"People can stand on the ocean?" Luffy asked.

"C'mon, don't be silly," Usopp said.

"No, seriously!" I said. "There's a guy standing on top of the water!"

They walked over to the front of the ship to see the man.

"Huh?" Luffy asked.

Zoro joined in to see what the man was doing. They all rubbed their eyes to see if he was actually there.

"It sure is chilly today," said the man.

I stared at him, transfixed as to how he was standing on the ocean!

"Yeah, it is chilly today!" Luffy agreed.

"Chilly, chilly," Usopp said, a little confused. "Today's very chilly."

"Really?" the person asked.

All of a sudden the ship was rocked out of place by a bigger ship underneath us. I held onto the railing tightly, so I wouldn't fall off.

"What is that?!" Luffy asked. "A watermelon?"

I highly doubted that a watermelon could be that big.

"Is that a ship?" Zoro asked.

The metal sides lowered to reveal a pirate ship. It was almost galleon sized! I looked with my telescope to see if anyone was on board. There were many, many people on the ship. I gulped and took a step back.

"Did our jumbo underwater raid ship, the Tin Tyrant, surprise you?!" said a disembodied voice from somewhere on the ship.

All of a sudden, men came out of nowhere and surround us on deck, even surrounded me in the crow's nest!

I was paralyzed with fear. There were about six men crowding around and pointing guns at me.

"Are you really pirates? You're strange," said a rather fat man taking a bite out of a piece of meat. "Is it just you four and a half?"

_A half?! _I thought, very much offended.

"I find it strange that a group of pirates would only have four and a half people," he said, taking a bite out of a sword. When he finished eating it, he said, "Well, no matter. I'll start by asking this… We want to go to the Drum Kingdom. Do you happen to have an Eternal Pose or a log pose?"

"Nope," Sanji said. "Never even heard of the place."

"You're done, right? So leave!" Luffy said. "We're in a hurry. WE don't have time to mess with you!"

"Don't rush life like that," said the man. "But if you have neither, that's alright. For now, I'll take your treasure and this ship."

"What?!" Luffy said.

"But first, I'm feeling a bit hungry…" he said. He bent down and took a bit out of the ship's railing.

_He's eating the ship…?_

"What is this guy?!" Usopp said, befuddled.

"Don't eat our ship!" Luffy yelled.

One of the men pointed the gun at Luffy and said, "Hold it right there! Wapol-sama is currently eating!"

"Shut up!" Luffy replied, punching him.

"Fire!" said another guy.

They all started shooting Luffy, but the bullets all bounced off of his rubber body.

Zoro and Sanji got excited, they wanted to fight.

"No, wait! We can discuss this!" Usopp said, hiding behind the mast.

I looked at the men surrounding me. They looked a little hesitant to fire.

"What are you doing?!" the man named Wapol asked. "Shoot the girl!"

"But… she's a little girl…" said a man.

I smiled and said, "Tick Tock."

While time was stopped, I took the guns out of the men's hands and threw them overboard.

"Un-Tock," I said, starting time again.

"What?!" one of them asked.

"Where'd our guns go?!" another asked.

I punched and pushed them all out of the crow's nest. I dusted off my hands and said, "That wasn't so hard."

"Wapol-sama…" said a man on the lower deck. "These guys are…!"

"This ship doesn't taste half bad…" said Wapol.

Luffy punched his way over to the rotund pirate, Wapol. "Stop eating our ship!" he yelled.

Wapol actually chopped on Luffy's head, but being the rubber man he is, he was too chewy.

Luffy Gum-Gum Bazooka-ed him into next week.

All the men on board our ship fled to theirs. Apparently, Wapol couldn't swim due to his Munch-Munch Devil Fruit Powers.

"This isn't over! We will make you pay for this!" said the man that stood on water.

They sailed away, yelling threats at us.

* * *

Usopp worked on the eaten railings the next day. It was rather annoying, all his hammering.

It wasn't snowing, but it was just very cold. Vivi explained that the constant cold weather was proof an island was nearby.

"Magnolia-san, look out onto the horizon to see if there's an island nearby," Vivi said.

"Got it," I said, putting the telescope up to my eye. "I see it! There's an island!"

Luffy came sprinting up as I announced an island was nearby. As we got closer, everyone could see it.

As we sailed further inland, I made my way onto the deck with my bag. The island was covered in snow. I dreaded the thought of trudging through all the cold, wetness. I hated the cold.

"This is really something," Sanji said. "Look at those mountains."

"Hey, Luffy. Are you cold, dressed like that?" Usopp asked, shivering in all of his layers.

"It's minus ten degrees C right now! That's when bears get ready to hibernate!" Vivi said.

I shuddered at the thought.

He looked back at us and said, "Oh…" He paused and started shivering. "So cold!"

"Took you long enough!" Usopp and Sanji complained.

We came across a small waterfall and decided to stop there.

"Who's going doctor-hunting?" Zoro asked. "Well, people-hunting comes first."

Luffy raised his hand, having put on a coat and gloves. "I'm going!"

"Me too!" Sanji said.

"Ok, have fun!" Usopp said.

All of a sudden, we were surrounded by angry people. "That's far enough, pirates!" one of them said.

"I think I found people…" I said.

"They don't seem too friendly," Usopp said.

"Leave this place at one," said a man who stepped forward. "This instant!"

"We came to find a doctor," Luffy said.

"Our friend is sick!" I said.

"We won't fall for that trick, filthy pirate!" said a citizen.

"Using a child to trick us," said a man. "How dirty do pirates play these days?"

"This is our island! We won't let any pirates land here!" said another.

"Leave now, or we'll blow up the ship!" said another citizen.

"They really hate us…" Sanji said. "And we've only just met."

"Don't talk back!" said the last citizen to speak. He fired a shot at Sanji's feet.

I gasped in terror.

"They're shooting!" Usopp said.

Sanji got really mad, but Vivi held him back. I heard another gun shot and saw Vivi fall to the ground.

I shrieked and yelled, "VIVI-SAN!"

"WHY YOU-" Luffy yelled, incredibly furious.

I fell to my knees beside her and said, "Vivi-san? Vivi-san?!"

She sat up, seemingly unharmed and grabbed Luffy before he could go on a rampage. "Stop! Fighting won't help anything!" she said. "I'm fine! It only grazed my arm!" She got down on her knees and said, "We won't land here. But could we ask for a doctor?" She bowed.

"Vivi-san…" I said, shocked. I got down and bowed with her. I didn't want anyone else to get hurt.

"Our friend is suffering from a grave illness. Please help! I beg you!" she said. "You're not fit to be captain, Luffy. Not everything can be fixed by acting recklessly."

Luffy was silent for a while. "Yeah," he said calmly. "I'm sorry. I was wrong. Please call a doctor! Please help our friend." He got down on his knees and bowed, too.

I cringed, expecting gunfire. None came.

"I will show you to the village…" said a man who had spoken before. "Follow me."

We all sat up and exchanged looks of relief. The citizens followed the man into the village.

"See," Vivi said. "They understood!"

"Yeah!" Luffy said. "You're amazing!"

Vivi smiled. We all got off the boat and followed the villagers. Zoro stayed with Karoo to look after the boat. Sanji carried Nami on his back.

I hated every second of sticking my feet into the deep snow and pulling it out, only to put the other in the cold ick.

The man who agreed to show us to the village said, "The only doctor we have here is a witch."

I gasped, a little bit scared of what was going to happen.

"Witch?" Usopp asked.

"You gotta be kidding me…" Sanji said. "Noting here makes sense. What is this place, anyway?"

"This land still doesn't have a name," said the man.

"A nameless land? Does that really happen?" Vivi asked.

A bear came walking by. Usopp started freaking out, but I was too cold and miserable to care.

"A hiking bear. They're not dangerous," said the man. "Don't forget to bow. It's proper manners."

I bowed at the bear quickly, along with everyone else. The bear bowed back.

We finally arrived in the village named Big Horn. I found it weird how the towns could have a name while the island didn't.

The citizens left, trusting the man's word that we didn't pose a threat.

"Come to my home for now," said the man.

A woman came up to him and said, "Oh, Dalton-san. I heard there were pirates. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, it's ok," he said. "There's nothing to worry about."

The woman nodded and walked away, but a man approached us next.

"Dalton-kun! We're all looking forward to the election in two days!" said the old man. "Everyone says they're going to vote for you."

"You can't be serious…" Dalton said. "I'm nothing but a sinful man."

He seemed very kind and humble.

Dalton led us into his home and said, "Use the bed over there. I'll warm up the place." He set down his things and said, "I'm Dalton, captain of the security squad of this island. Please forgive our… heavy-handed welcome." He paused, turned to Vivi and said, "May I ask you a question?" She nodded. "I somehow feel like I've seen you before."

"I-it's probably your imagination…!" Vivi said. "Anyways, will you please tell us about this witch? Nami-san's temperature was forty-two degrees C when I checked it just now."

"Forty-two?!" he asked.

"It's gone up for three days now…" I said.

"She'll die if it goes up any more!" Dalton said.

"Yes," Vivi said. "But we don't even know the cause of her illness, or how to treat it…"

"We need a doctor! Anyone will do!" Sanji said. "Where is this witch of yours?!"

"See the mountains outside the window?" Dalton said. I looked over and saw the strange cylindrical-shaped mountains. "They're known as the Drum Rockies. There's a caste at the top of the tallest on in the middle. That's where she lives, Dr. Kureha, the witch."

"Of all places, why does it have to be so far away?!" Sanji asked. "Call her right away! We have a critical patient!"

"Even if we wanted to, there's no way to contact her," Dalton said.

"And she calls herself a doctor?!" Sanji muttered angrily. "What the hell is she like?"

"She's a very skilled doctor," Dalton admitted. "But she's an eccentric old hag. She's nearly 140 years old now."

"How's that even possible…?" I asked.

"And… she likes pickled plums," Dalton said.

"What happens when people here get sick or injured?" Vivi asked.

"She comes down from the mountain when she feels like it," he explained. "She looks for patients and treats them. As payment, she takes whatever she wants from their house before leaving."

"She almost sounds like a pirate," Luffy said.

"How does someone so old make it down that steep of a mountain?" I asked.

"Well, it's just a rumor, but some people claim to have seen her riding a sleigh pulled by a strange creature on moonlit nights," he said. "That's why she's called a witch." He sighed and said, "All we can do is wait for the next time she comes down the mountain."

"You can't be serious…" Vivi said.

Luffy shook Nami awake and said that the only way to see a doctor is to climb a mountain, and that they were going to climb it.

Everyone started arguing about how he was going to get up, how Nami was going to get there, and how it would be too hard on her.

"I need to get over this fast…" she struggled to say. "I need to hurry… for Vivi…" She smiled weakly and said, "I'm counting on you, Captain!"

Luffy smiled ear to ear and said, "That's more like it! Leave it to me!"

We were all worried about them going up alone.

"Alright," Sanji said. "I'm coming too."

They walked out the door.

"Listen, Luffy," Usopp said seriously. "Don't even fall once, or you can expect Nami to die!"

Vivi tied a belt around Luffy, securing Nami to his back.

"Ok, that should do it," she said. "I think I'm going to wait here. I'd only get in the way."

"Same here," Usopp said.

"Well, I want to go…" I said. "I mean, it would take less time, but I don't think I'd be helpful beyond that. I'll stay here."

"Got it!" Luffy said. "Ok, Nami! Hold on tight!"

"If you're going, I won't stop you, but at least climb up from the other side," Dalton said. "There are Lapins on this course. They're fierce, carnivorous rabbits. If you encounter a pack of them, you're as good as dead."

"Rabbits?" Luffy asked. "But we're in a hurry. We'll be fine."

"Yeah, I'll kick 'em!" Sanji said.

"Kick? You can't be serious! You'd be walking to your deaths!" Dalton said.

Luffy and Sanji started running for the mountains. We watched as they ran away.

"Will they really be alright?" Dalton asked.

"They're strong," I said. "They'll be fine."

"I'm more worried about Nami," Usopp said.

"Yeah…" Vivi agreed.

We watched them run off into the horizon. Dalton invited us in, but we three insisted on staying outside. He decided to join us.

I took a deep breath and thought; _I hope they'll be safe… I wonder what's going to happen._

My vision clouded for a second. I blinked a couple times, thinking snow was in my eye. But it was weird, the eye under my eye patch started to sting. I touched the eye patch, confused as to what was going on. This had never happened before.

"Magnolia?" Usopp asked me.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Are you alright?" Vivi asked.

"Yeah… Just this eye's hurting," I said, pointing to my eye patch.

"Has that ever happened?" Usopp asked.

I shook my head, "First- Ow!" A sharp flash of pain radiated throughout my eye socket.

"Did something get inside it?" Vivi asked. "Have you taken it off recently?"

"Only last night to go to sleep," I said.

"Here, let me see," Vivi suggested.

"Um…" I said. "It's kinda… Weird…"

"Weird how?" she asked, confused.

"There's a working clock on it," Usopp said. "It's pretty cool, actually."

"Clock?" Vivi asked.

"What's going on?" Dalton asked. "Something about a clock?"

"Her eye's bothering her," Usopp said. "Said it's never happened before."

I went to untie the eye patch, but as I got it off, there was another flare of immense pain. "Ow!" I exclaimed, squeezing it shut.

"Here, open your eye," Vivi said. "I'll see if there's something irritating it."

Usopp and Vivi crowded around. Dalton was standing behind them, craning his head to see.

I bit my lip and opened my eye. "Is it bad?" I asked.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	12. A Glimpse into the Future

"Is it bad?" I asked, opening my eye that barely ever saw light.

Vivi and Dalton looked a little creeped out, but Usopp's face turned pale.

"Uh… Magnolia?" he said. "It's supposed to be a working clock, right?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked. "Did it stop or something?"

"The hands… T-they're turning really fast," he said. "Like, really fast!"

"Ow!" I said, falling to my knees and clutching the area of my face of my aching eye.

Everything stopped. I didn't stop time, but it was like my eye stopped it for me.

I didn't know what was happening, but my eye stopped hurting. I stood up and looked around. I wasn't where I was earlier…

I was in a field of snow. There was a whole pack of the Lapins and they all looked really angry. I saw Luffy, Nami and Sanji in the field. Luffy was running away while Sanji was kicking huge rabbits to let Luffy have enough time to run away with Nami on his back.

_Time is moving again?_ I thought.

Everything went blurry for a couple seconds. When my vision became clear, I was in a different place. I was now standing in the middle of a village, but it looked different from Big Horn. There was an old woman with a blue-nosed creature accompanying her.

_What's going on?_

The woman walked into a building and I followed after her. She healed a little boy's legs. No one seemed to notice I was there.

_Is that… Dr. Kureha? She came down the mountain!_

Everything blurred again, and when it all cleared up, I was at the harbor near our ship. Wapol's ship was docked right next to ours. There were a bunch of dead bodies, as well.

Yet again, the scene changed before me. I was floating in midair and watching Luffy carry Sanji along with Nami up the steep mountain. All of a sudden his hand slipped and he fell down the mountain.

I shrieked and tried to grab his hand, but I was too late.

"No…! No, stop! I don't want to see this!" I yelled, covering my eyes.

Then, I was back in Big Horn. Usopp and Vivi were shaking me. I opened up my eyes and looked around.

"Magnolia-san!" Vivi said.

I stood up and looked around, confused. "I'm back…" I said.

_What the heck just happened…?!_

I tied the eye patch back over my eye.

The three of them were staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Your eye…" Usopp said. "It stopped for a while, then started again, then stopped and started again. Then it was back to normal."

"You wouldn't answer us…" Vivi said. "What happened to you?"

"I… I don't know…" I said. "But I think I'm fine now."

"Are you sure?" Dalton asked. "If you need to rest-"

"No, I'm fine," I said, looking around. "I think I'm going to take a walk."

"I'll go with you," Vivi said.

"I'll be fine by myself…" I said, standing up and walking away. "I'll be back in a little bit, I promise."

The wind started to pick up as I walked towards the forest. I shivered and clutched my arms to keep warm.

As I step foot in the forest, Vivi came running to me.

"Magnolia-san!" she called. "Dr. Kureha is in the next village over. We're going to go, want to come with us?"

"Yeah, sure," I said.

Dalton pulled up a couple minutes later in a reindeer drawn sleigh and we all piled in.

I sat next to Vivi and pondered over what I had seen.

_If what I saw actually happened, then Dr. Kureha really is in the next village… But why did I see that? And how can Luffy be in two places at once? Unless one of them happened later, I don't see how it's possible._

I gasped quietly and realized what happened.

_Did I… see the future…?! Well, I can control time at will… so I guess it would make sense I can see the future… But, how did I trigger it?_

I remembered I asked myself 'I wonder what's going to happen.'

So by wanting to know the future, I was shown it.

I smiled and started thinking of a name to call it.

_Tick-Tock Forward? No… Ooh! What about Tick-Tock Fate? Yes, I like that. Hehe! I have a new power!_

"Wait!" I said.

Vivi and Usopp looked at me.

I turned to Vivi and said, "If what I saw is true then Wapol's coming!"

"What are you talking about?" Usopp asked.

"Wapol?!" Dalton asked.

"He's coming here, he's coming to this island," I said. "And Dr. Kureha left the next village."

"How do you know that?" Vivi asked.

"My eye hurt because it was the first time I ever sped up time. I saw the future! I'm telling you Wapol's coming and it's useless to go there because she already left!"

They didn't believe me. Vivi even checked my forehead to see if I had a fever. I sighed and stayed quiet the rest of the way to the next village.

* * *

"They've already left?!" Usopp asked a store owner. "And just a moment ago?"

I walked over to the boy sitting on the couch. "She healed your legs, right?" I asked.

He nodded and smiled. "I'm going to be ok because of her!"

"If you're looking for Dr. Kureha, someone said she headed to Gyasta," said the store owner.

I crossed my arms and smirked. "I told you so," I murmured.

Someone burst into the room yelling for Dalton. The man was heavily injured and leaning on the door post to stand up.

"Aren't you supposed to stand watch today?" Dalton asked the man. The man collapsed and Dalton saved him before he could fall. "What's the matter? What's going on?"

"All the watchmen except me…" he said, "were killed."

"What?!" Dalton said.

Usopp looked at me.

"Suddenly, a submarine sailboat appeared…" said the man. "They killed everyone!"

"Who do you mean by 'they'?" Dalton asked.

"We're not strong enough…" said the man. "You have to help, Dalton-san! Wapol! Wapol came back!"

The whole store cracked into nervous whispers. Dalton ran out of the store and disappeared riding a horse out of the town.

Usopp and Vivi were staring at me with wide-eyed expressions.

"I told you…" I said. "But you didn't listen."

All of the able-bodied citizens decided to take up arms and follow Dalton back to Big Horn to defeat Wapol and his men.

"What are we going to do?" I asked Vivi and Usopp.

"We need to go to Gyasta," Vivi said. "It's our only option right now."

"Sounds like a plan," Usopp said.

We piled back into Dalton's sleigh and headed in the direction of the town called Gyasta.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Usopp asked about five minutes into the sleigh ride.

We were all huddled around a map.

"Hm…" she said. "I'm not really sure…"

"That's not good…" I said.

"Do something, Vivi!" Usopp said. "You're a princess, right?"

"That has nothing to do with this," Vivi said. "I'm not a witch, I'm a princess."

"The map says there'll be a sign for Gyasta somewhere on the road…" I said. "We should keep a look out for that."

We all collectively agreed to keep a look out for the sign.

"Oi, Magnolia," Usopp said. "Did you see anything else when you saw the future or whatever?"

"Oh yeah," Vivi said. "Tell us more about what you saw!"

"Well, I saw Sanji-san, Luffy-san, and Nami-chan all heading towards the mountain, but they were fighting the Lapins."

"They're alright, right?" Usopp asked.

"I think so," I said. "Then, I saw Dr. Kureha heal that little boy's legs. After that was Wapol's ship and the dead bodies everywhere."

"Anything else?" Vivi asked.

"Yeah…" I said. "But… It's not good."

"Not good…?" Usopp asked, gulping. "How?"

"I think Luffy-san's gonna fall off the mountain…" I said.

Both of them went silent.

"That's definitely not gonna happen," Usopp said finally. "Luffy would never fall, especially carrying Nami when Sanji's around."

"Luffy-san was carrying Sanji-san, too," I said.

"Luffy-san…" Vivi said worriedly. "Please be careful…"

"Let's just hope what you saw wasn't right…" Usopp said. "Anyway, let's look for the sign to Gyasta!"

We all kept vigilant eyes out for the sign that pointed us to the town, but we just couldn't find it.

When the snow go so deep that the reindeer couldn't go any further, we hopped out of the sleigh.

The ground started rumbling from under us. I gulped and looked around, waiting to see some huge creature about to eat us.

"Wait…" Vivi said. "Could this be…?"

"A-a-avalanche…?" Usopp said.

My eyes widened as I look up towards the mountains and saw an avalanche coming straight for us.

"Magnolia-san!" Vivi said. "You can stop things with your Devil Fruit powers, right?!"

"That's a lot of snow!" I said. "I don't know if I can hold all of that!"

"Can you at least try?!" Usopp asked, nervously.

I looked at the oncoming avalanche and yelled, "Tick Stop!"

"It's not working!" Usopp yelled.

"I don't have a specific target! It's too much snow!" I yelled.

"What do we do now?!" Vivi asked.

Usopp was already untying the reindeer who sprinted away.

"RUN!" he yelled.

We all took off running, trying to out run an avalanche.

"W-w-w-we'll be fine!" Usopp tried to reassure us. "Even if we get swallowed, I'll save you guys for sure!"

"Do you think Luffy-san and the others were swallowed?" Vivi asked.

They both looked to me. I said, "I didn't see it, but somehow Sanji-san got hurt so Luffy-san had to carry them both up the mountain, so I guess not!"

All of a sudden, my feet were picked up from under me and I was swallowed by the avalanche, along with Vivi and Usopp. I didn't have enough time to stop time, it happened so fast.

* * *

I woke up very wet, grumpy, and cold. Only my head was sticking up from the snow so I can to claw my way out while Vivi continually slapped Usopp so he would stay alive.

The next thing we all decided to do was figure out where the heck we were because we had obviously missed the sign to Gyasta.

That's when Vivi stepped on a body emerging from the snow.

"AHHH! What's that?!" Usopp yelled with a very swollen face.

When I saw green hair, I knew that it was Zoro. He wasn't wearing a shirt for some reason.

"That was close…" he said, standing up. He shivered and looked in our direction. "Oh, Vivi, Magnolia…" He stared at Usopp, trying to figure out who he was. "Oh! It's you, Usopp! What're you guys doing here?"

"What are _you_ doing here?!" Vivi asked.

"I was winter swimming," he said. "Then after a while, I had no idea where I was anymore."

"Dressed like that, you could get frost bite," I said.

"You're stupid, aren't you?" Usopp said.

"Anyway, give me your coat, Usopp," Zoro said.

They bickered over Usopp's coat for a while. Usopp kept refusing even though it was obviously the nice thing to do for someone else who is probably ten times colder than he was at the time, but whatever I'm not judging him or anything.

Then Vivi noticed some people near us.

"Hey… I remember those buildings…" Usopp noted.

He was right. The tops of the buildings showed that we were in Big Horn. Most of the lower parts of the buildings were covered with snow because of the avalanche. I didn't realize how far we had just walked.

From what I could see, it looked like there were soldiers on one side and civilians on the other. They seemed to be arguing about something.

Zoro walked over to them and we followed him. It turns out that Dalton was buried under the avalanche!

"Dalton-san is?!" Vivi asked, worried.

"We can't dig him out because those guys are in our way," said one of the civilians.

"Step back!" yelled a soldier. "If you have any objection, go right ahead and bring it on!"

I scowled at the soldiers and mumbled, "Meanie…"

Zoro recognized the soldiers' clothes from their unsuccessful raid of our ship. "They're our enemy, right?" he asked.

"Yeah… But what are you-" Usopp said.

"You aren't so courageous without Dalton, are you?" mocked a laughing soldier.

I couldn't even see Zoro move, he was so fast. He punched the mocking soldier.

"Mr. Bushido!" Vivi said.

Everyone else was against the fact that he had totally taken out one of the soldiers.

Zoro laughed as he put on the soldier's coat. "This is warm! I'm so borrowing this!"

"You asked… because of that…?!" Usopp realized.

I laughed.

"You!" said a different soldier.

"Oh great… Now they're angry!" said Usopp.

"You were on the ship with that guy who blew Wapol-sama away!" said the same soldier from before.

Zoro looked back at them and smirked. "You never learn, do you?"

The soldiers charged but I really didn't think they had a chance, despite the fact that they outnumbered him about fifteen to one.

And I was right once he swiped three of their swords.

It was over within seconds.

"What a disappointing bunch…" he said, sticking the three swords into the snow.

"A-amazing…" Vivi said.

"All right! Good job, Zoro! Just as I instructed!" Usopp yelled, trying to act like it was his plan when it really wasn't.

The civilians ignored him and started digging frantically in the snow, looking for Dalton.

Zoro walked over to us and asked what they were doing.

"I'll explain later, let's help!" Usopp said.

I rubbed my hands together to get them at least warmer than they were before, before I started digging in the cold snow.

I was pretty sure I had frost bite by the time someone said they found him. We all ran over to the people that found him.

Dalton had three arrows through his chest, not all the way through, but they looked pretty deep.

"There's no heartbeat…" said the man that found him.

After much pleading on Vivi's part, a handle full of doctors came to treat him. They were called the Twenty MDs.

"I thought there weren't any doctors here…" Zoro said.

"They guys're the Twenty MDs and they exclusively work for Wapol," Usopp explained. "They're bad doctors!"

"Yeah! We can't trust you!" the citizens exclaimed.

The Twenty MDs said rather genuinely that they only did it because Wapol threatened them and the citizens caved in and let them take care of Dalton.

While the Twenty MDs worked on Dalton with many worried civilians standing around, Zoro, Usopp, Vivi and I decided that we should go up to the mountain.

"I'm worried what happened to Luffy-san and the others in that big avalanche!" Vivi said. "If anything happened to Nami-san in her condition…"

"You're worried about Nami," Usopp said, "and on top of that, you're worried about Dalton-san, as well as Alabasta, huh?"

"Someone can't be worried about that many things at once…" I said. "They'll explode."

"And plus, Nami is with Luffy and Sanji. I'm sure she's ok, even if Luffy supposedly fell," Usopp said.

"I can try to look, if you want…" I said.

"Really?!" Usopp and Vivi asked.

"I can try."

"Look for what?" Zoro asked.

"Magnolia can see the future, now," Usopp said.

"Woah!" Zoro said. "That's awesome!"

"I've only tried once…" I said, blushing. "I'll try to do it again."

Right as I was about to try and peek into the future, Dalton burst out of the house we were standing by.

"Dalton-san, you can't go!" said one of the doctors.

"Get out of my way!" he said, collapsing to his knees. "We can't let Wapol in the castle. Never!"

"You're heading to the castle?!" Vivi asked.

"In your condition? That's reckless!" Usopp said.

"When will I fight if I don't fight now?" he asked. "If Wapol seizes control of the throne again, this country will be rotten forever!"

The citizens pleaded with him to stay, but he was dead-set on going.

Usopp offered to carry him to the castle, but he only went about one meter, before Dalton became too heavy. Zoro ended up carrying him with Vivi, Usopp and me following along. Usopp was mad that he couldn't carry him.

"Wait!" said one of the citizens. "If you're willing to go that far… There's a ropeway to the castle."

"They were all cut! There's no more!" argued a different person.

"There is one. Someone reattached a white rope so it blends in," said the man. "It's tied to a big tree near the end of Gyasta."

"Gyasta?" Usopp asked.

"That's where Dr. Kureha was headed!" I said.

* * *

It turns out we actually did miss the sign to Gyasta. A bunch of citizens joined us. Once we all got into the cart to go up the mountain from the ropeway, I sat down.

"Ok, I'm going to try now," I said to Vivi. I took a deep breath and prayed I'd be able to do it again. "Tick-Tock… Fate!"

I could feel the clock in my eye turn wildly out of control and it worked!

I was standing inside an icy fortress, it was almost like a castle, but then I remembered that there was a castle on top of the mountain.

That's when I heard Luffy's voice. "Gum-Gum Bowgun!"

I looked over and saw a skinny version of Wapol being sent flying into the top of the castle.

The scene changed. I was standing all alone on the top of one of the castle's peaks, looking at a pirate flag. The pirate's Jolly Roger was cherry blossom petals floating around the typical skull and crossbones.

As the scene changed, I was confused why I saw the Jolly Roger.

_Maybe more pirates are on the island…?_ I thought.

The next was of everyone back on the ship. I even saw myself hanging out in the crow's nest, laughing along with everyone.

_Nami's ok!_

But I noticed a new face. I'd seen it before, but in a different form. It was the creature Dr. Kureha had as a pet.

_Maybe he's a doctor! _I thought._ How fun! We have a new member!_

When I came too, we almost reached the top of the mountain.

Vivi came over to me and asked, "What's going to happen?!"

"Nami's fine, Wapol's gone, and everything is alright," I said.

We landed at the top of the mountain and Vivi looked extremely relieved. I felt a bit worse for wear. I was extremely exhausted. It hadn't happened before and I don't know why it didn't, but the fatigue really hit me hard.

Zoro and Usopp had gone ahead, so I somewhat struggled to walk out of the lift with Vivi. When we stepped onto the snowy mountain, Usopp and Zoro were already stuck in the snow.

Luffy was laughing over them as they popped out of the snow. "I thought you were one of them, sorry!"

"We came up by the ropeway," Vivi said. "Luffy-san, are Nami-san and Sanji-san ok?"

"Yeah! They're fine now!" he said, smiling happily.

"I'm so glad!" Vivi said.

"I told you," I said.

"Yeah, but its nice hearing it from Luffy-san as well," Vivi said.

Dalton came up just as Luffy said he beat the crap out of Wapol.

"What about his two top men?" Dalton asked.

"The reindeer beat them up," Luffy said.

_Reindeer…? Oh! Oh! Maybe that's what that animal is! It did have horns, so I guess it makes sense!_

I looked around, looking for the reindeer and found him hiding behind a tree.

I smiled as I walked over to him. He hid even further behind it. He was wearing a hat and red pants. He looked like he was trying to dress like a human, yet he was a reindeer. He was so cute!

"Don't be scared," I said, smiling. I knelt down next to him and held out my hand. "I'm Magnolia, what's your name?"

He just stared at me with wide eyes and a scared expression. He poked my hand with one of his hooves and said, "Chopper…"

"I like your nose," I said. "It's my favorite color."

He smiled and waved a hoof like he was flattered. "Don't be silly!" he said. "You're stupid!"

I laughed and said, "I'm really serious."

All of a sudden, all of the people on the lift came bursting out.

"What is that thing?" they asked.

"It's a-a-a monst-"

Chopper hid behind the tree again and ran away.

"He's not a monster!" I yelled.

"Don't call him a monster!" Luffy yelled. "He's my new friend!" Luffy ran after him.

Dalton fell to his knees. We rushed over to see if he was ok. He said he was only a little drained.

"Hey," said an old woman, but she looked pretty fit. "Are you happy, brats? Take the injured guy to the medical ward."

"Ahh!" Zoro said. "You're that damn old hag!"

She kicked him in the face. "And anyone else injured, too."

"Y-yes, ma'am!" said the scared citizens.

"Don't dilly dally," she warned. "Do you want to end up the same as this man?!"

As the citizens scurried to get Dalton and the other injured people up into the castle, Usopp started building a snowman. Zoro was pouting by himself and Vivi said she was going to see Nami.

I sat down and started making snowballs and putting them side by side next to me. I made around thirty snowballs before I stopped. When I was done, the fatigue had completely worn off and I felt fine again.

I had an idea that would make even the cold fun.

I smirked mischievously as I stopped time by saying, "Tick-Tock."

I could see Zoro was looking at me right as I said it. His face was frozen in an expression of alarm.

He had every right to be! I was pretty sure he knew what I was about to do.

I scooped up a bunch of snowballs and walked over to Usopp, who was still working on his snow sculpture that I thought was going to be a snowman.

I set the snow balls down at my feet and picked them up one by one and threw them at him. Once they left my hand, they froze in time like everything else so it was extremely funny. I did the same to Zoro and ran behind a nearby tree.

"Un-Tock," I whispered.

I died laughing. Even though Zoro dodged most of his incoming snowballs, Usopp had no clue and got totally pelted by my sneak attack. My outrageously loud laughter gave away my position immediately, but I didn't even care.

"MAGNOLIA!" they both yelled.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	13. We're Here!

Before anyone could try and get revenge, Luffy came up and started yelling for the reindeer to come down and be pirates with us.

Usopp and Zoro stopped to tell him to give up and that he didn't want to be a pirate.

"That's not true!" Luffy said bluntly. "I wanna take him with us."

"That's not what _he_ wants!" Zoro pointed out.

Luffy didn't give up. "Reindeer!" he continued yelling. "Come out, reindeer!"

That's when Chopper actually showed himself.

"Let's be pirates together! Ok?" Luffy said.

"Not possible," he said.

"But it is 'cause it's fun!" Luffy tried to persuade.

"But…" he said. "But I'm a reindeer! I have antlers and hooves! I even have a blue nose!" He paused and said, "It's true… I wanna be a pirate, but… I'm not even human! I'm a monster! I can't become your friend! So… So I came to say thank you…" He looked to the ground and continued. "I do appreciate you guys. Thank you for asking me to join you. I'll stay here, but… one day, if you feel like it, stop by again-"

"SHUT UP!" Luffy yelled. "LET'S GO!"

Chopper's eyes watered and he cried. We all smiled at him, as if silently inviting him.

Zoro hit Luffy on the head and said, "You don't ask people to join you by telling them to 'shut up'…"

Chopper ran back into the castle to say goodbye to Dr. Kureha and gather up things he needed for the trip.

Nami and Vivi had dragged Sanji out while Chopper was making his long speech. Zoro and Usopp just brushed off the snow that I had pelted them with. Usopp continued to build his snowman.

Luffy said he wanted to say goodbye to the 'witch lady', but Nami said that they should give Chopper his time to say his goodbyes.

"And plus," Nami said. "We don't have time for goodbyes. Once we get to our ship, we immediately set our course to Alabasta."

"I'll get the ropeway ready," Usopp volunteered. "Oi, Luffy! Gimme a hand."

"I didn't know there was a ropeway," he said, following Usopp.

After a couple minutes, I could hear some yelling in the castle, but I didn't really think anything of it. It was partly a doctor's office, after all.

"Hey, he's coming…" Zoro said.

"What…?" I asked. I looked into the gate and saw Chopper pulling a sled and being chased by someone.

"The ropeway is ready!" Usopp called.

"Everyone! Get on the sleigh! We'll go down the mountain!" he yelled.

That's when I noticed it was Dr. Kureha that was chasing him. She actually threw a mace at him, along with other various sharp/dangerous objects.

A simultaneous, "What?!" was heard from everyone in the group.

We all jumped in the sleigh to avoid the raging witch. He hopped on the ropeways and ran on the line with us balancing in the sleigh. From up there, it was a very long way down.

When we landed I felt relieved, but Luffy wanted to go again.

"Stupid!" Nami scolded. "We're setting sail right away."

Sanji woke up and was extremely confused as to where he was. That's when we started hearing cannon noises.

Chopper stopped the sleigh and turned into his little self again. We all looked off into the horizon.

It was beautiful. The snow was bright pink. It looked like cherry blossom petals were falling instead of snow. The center mountain had a cloud of pink above it as well, making it look even more like cherry blossoms.

Chopper wept, it was so stunning.

It looked even prettier from the crow's nest of the ship. When we set sail, Luffy was making a funny face and everyone was laughing except Chopper and me (I couldn't exactly see the face from on deck.) I think he was just a bit overwhelmed with all the strong personalities on deck. Vivi was warming up Karoo who had jumped in the frozen river.

"Let's toast to our new friend!" Usopp yelled.

"Yeah!" we all agreed. "Cheers!"

Even though I didn't have a drink, I raised an imaginary glass towards the deck.

We all filled Chopper in on the situation in Alabasta.

* * *

The next day, Sanji interrogated Luffy. Apparently the food he had prepared for the journey had 'mysteriously' disappeared overnight. Luffy was obviously the one to blame. When Luffy fessed up, Sanji kicked him into the wall. He also kicked Karoo, Usopp, and Chopper.

Sanji condemned the two boys to fish until they caught something while he went through the storage to see if anything was left.

We went through a small section of fog and they accidentally caught a man.

"Why did I jump on the duck that I suddenly came across?!" the man asked himself.

He let go of Karoo, whom Luffy and Usopp were using as bait, and fell into the ocean.

"Help me! I can't swim-" he said, splashing wildly before he went under.

I rushed down the rope ladder to see what was happening.

Luffy and Usopp pulled him back on deck, soaking wet. We all gathered around him suspiciously.

"I thought I was going to die…" he said, panting. "To think I was saved by pirates who are total strangers… I will never forget your kindness for the rest of my life!" He bowed to us, and then he pointed a finger into the air and said, "Also, may I have a cup of warm soup?"

"We don't have any!" Luffy and Usopp yelled.

"We're the ones who're hungry!" Zoro yelled.

The strange looking man gazed at Vivi and said, "Ooh! You're a cutie. You're my type! I wanna eat you up! Smooch~" He made a kissy face at her.

Vivi grimaced and looked away. The man was certainly ugly. He was dressed like a swan ballerina with makeup and pointe shoes. His hairy legs were exposed by his strange attire.

"So you can't swim, huh?" Luffy said.

"Yes, I ate a devil fruit," the man said.

"Really? What kind of fruit?" Usopp asked.

The man stood up and said, "Well, since there's no need to rush until my ship comes to pick me up… In the spirit of entertainment, I'll show you." He smiled creepily and thrusted his hand at Luffy's face. "This is my power!" he yelled.

Zoro thought he was a threat, so he pulled out two swords and said, "You bastard!"

Luffy's face appeared on the man and he said in Luffy's voice, "Wait! Wait! Wait! I just told you this is entertainment! Gimme a break!"

"Woah!" Luffy said. "That's me!"

"Surprised?" the man asked, laughing. "If I touch my face with my left hand," he did so, "See? I'm back to myself!" His face turned back to his ugly self. "This is the power of the Clone-Clone Fruit."

I laughed, thinking his power was a bit… lame, but he thought I was laughing because it was funny.

"I don't have to knock you down either!" he said. "All I have to do is…" He touched his face and he turned into Usopp, Zoro, me, Chopper, and then Nami. "touch my face and I mimic anyone I remember, even their bodies!" Nami punched him before he could get any ideas.

Luffy, Usopp and Chopper cheered him on to do more, which he not so humbly indulged.

Zoro, Nami and I went off to the side, unamused by all the fuss.

When he finally left, his shipmates called him Mr. 2.

"Mr.… 2?!" Vivi said. "So he is Bon Clay…!"

"How did you not know his face, Vivi?" Luffy asked.

"I never met Mr. 2 as well as Mr. 1 and his partner," she admitted. "I don't know their powers, either… though I did hear rumors…" We all gathered around her. "He's a ballerina with a large frame, who talks like a woman, and a swan coat that says 'Bon Clay' on the back."

"You should've noticed…" said Usopp and Luffy.

"What's the matter, Vivi-san?" I asked. She looked really worried.

"One of the faces he showed from his memory… I saw my father's face!" she said.

"If you could mimic a king…" Zoro said. "You'd be able to do quite bad things…"

"How could we let someone like that get away?" Usopp said.

"He's certainly gonna be a problem if he's on our enemy's side…" Nami said. "If he realizes we're his enemy, he could transform into one of us using his memory from earlier!"

"We won't be able to trust each other…" I said.

"I think we should consider ourselves lucky we got to see him now," Zoro said, grinning slyly. "We can make counter-measures."

* * *

We entered Alabasta's climate within a couple grueling days with no food. I was fine, but Luffy was really suffering.

Up in the crow's nest, I saw many Baroque Works ships. When I told everyone down below, Vivi said that the employees had started gathering.

"They're probably Billions," Vivi said. "The Officer Agent's subordinates."

"That means our enemy is at least 200," Nami said.

Usopp started readying the cannon. "Let's get on with the firing!" he said frantically.

"It'll be quicker if we go there directly to beat them up!" Luffy said, hyped up. His stomach growled and he changed his mind. "We should eat first."

"Don't even bother," Zoro said. "They're small fries."

"He's right," Sanji agreed. "If we lose our real target, that'll be it. There're only nine of us."

We each got marks on our left arms of an X that were covered by bandages that symbolized that we were actually us. My sleeve covered the bandages so I didn't look out of the ordinary, like Chopper and Zoro did.

We all started preparing for Alabasta and the many fights ahead.

When I could see the island, everyone got really excited.

"Let's stop at the town called Nanohana. We have to hide the ship," Vivi said.

"Alright!" Luffy said. "No matter what happens, this thing on our left arms is the sign of our friendship!"

We all gathered in a circle and put our left arms in.

"Let's land!" Luffy determined. "To a restaurant- oh, and Alabasta!"

Nami gave a pep-talk to Luffy about how he wasn't supposed to just rush into things and that the people we would be fighting are trained assassins. He said he understood.

* * *

We docked the ship on a remote harbor that Vivi said no one visited. From the ship, we could see the city called Nanohana.

Nami once again reminded everyone that self-control would be key and acting on instinct could get us killed.

"Yes, Nami-san!" Sanji agreed happily.

"The guy who needs to hear that the most is already gone…" Zoro said.

"Hm?" I asked. I looked around and saw that Luffy had already taken off towards the city. "Luffy-san!"

"GET BACK HERE!" Nami yelled angrily to no avail. He just kept barreling towards the city at top speed.

"He's all instinct…" Usopp decreed.

"What should we do?" Vivi asked.

"Don't worry," Sanji said while jumping off the boat. "Find where the most commotion is, and he'll be there."

"Got that right," Usopp said.

Nami sighed. "I wish he'd at least realize he has a bounty on his head!"

"Forget about him. Let him do whatever," Zoro said, climbing down the rope ladder. "Let's just eat first. We can think after that."

Chopper jumped off the ship and Nami looked annoyed. "They're all the same…" she said.

"Karoo and I can't go with you," Vivi said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I'm too recognizable here," she said.

"Don't worry," Sanji said. "I'll go shopping for you too, Vivi-chan!"

All of a sudden Karoo started freaking out.

"What's wrong?" Vivi asked.

Karoo pointed across the harbor to a ship that had giant words on the side. 'Mr. 3' it read.

"Mr. 3's ship?!" Vivi said.

"That creep didn't kick the bucket after all?!" Usopp asked.

"His ship runs on his wax powers, so there's no mistake," she said.

"I have an idea!" Usopp said.

We all climbed down to the ground and waited for Usopp. He came back with a huge blanket and we walked into the city crouching under it. Since Mr. 3 had never seen Sanji or Chopper, they were the only ones who weren't under the cover.

I thought the idea was a bit weird, but at least it worked. Usopp checked that the close was clear and we stayed behind a pile of ruins.

"Looks like nobody noticed us!" Usopp cheered.

"Oi, Vivi," Zoro said. "You said you had a plan to stop the rebel army, right?" She nodded. "What are you going to do now? What are we going to do?"

She looked confused. "The arrangement was only to bring me to Alaba-"

Nami knocked her forehead and said, "Come on! Are you still saying that? We've traveled this far together. We can't just leave you now!"

"Yeah!" I said. "You're our friend."

"Don't try and do everything on your own," Usopp said.

"Plus, I'm interested in this Warlord of the Sea," admitted Zoro.

"Don't mention that!" Nami whispered hoarsely to him.

"Not to mention people are out to kill all of us, but me and Chopper," Sanji said. "So there you have it."

"And besides, if this country gets destroyed, we won't get our reward for bringing you here," Nami said deviously.

"Y-yeah…" Vivi said.

"Very, good, then!" Nami said happily.

"Go to hell…" Zoro said.

That reminded Nami of Zoro's debt to her. She said even if she was a ghost, she'd still haunt him for money.

When everyone calmed down, Vivi began to explain her plan. "Northwest of this city is an oasis called Yuba. That's where the rebel army is based. I'd like to go there first to stop the uprising. But we have to cross the desert to get to Yuba," she said. "We've got to stock up on food and water here if we have any chance in crossing. But since Mr. 3 is in town…"

"It's not going to be a problem," Sanji said. "He hasn't seen my face."

"That's right! You haven't met anyone so far, Sanji-san!" I said. "And Chopper-san too!"

"That'll be perfect," he said, looking to Chopper. "We'll have a lot to carry, so I'm counting on you."

Chopper nodded and said, "Got it!" He changed into his reindeer form.

"In that case, thank you both," Vivi said. She handed them a piece of paper. "This is everything we'll need. Oh, we'll need some clothes or else we'll stand out."

"And perfume!" Nami said.

"No problem!" Sanji said.

Everyone else said what they wanted. Usopp really wanted tabasco for some reason. They exited the ruins to go shopping.

"I wonder where Luffy-san could be…" I said when they'd left.

We waited in the ruins for about an hour before Sanji and Chopper came back. He handed everyone clothes and we took turns going behind the ruins to change.

I was the last to change. When I walked back in, Nami was twirling and Vivi was blushing and saying that she was wearing dancer clothes when she asked for commoner clothes. The guys were eating like wild animals. Chopper was on the ground covering his nose.

"Magnolia-chan!" Sanji said. "You look adorable in those clothes!"

I grimaced and shook my head. I preferred my other outfit over that attire. Vivi was right, he had gotten dancer clothes and I really didn't like it. A top that showed my stomach and a long, flowing skirt was definitely not my forte.

Vivi started talking about how crossing the desert was going to be much more difficult than we probably were thinking. We all agreed to continue helping her until everything in Alabasta was settled.

"Let's go to Yuba right now!" Usopp said, fired up.

Everyone cheered in agreement.

"Wait…" I said. "What about Luffy-san?"

"LUFFY!" they said, noticing he was still missing.

"That idiot…" said Nami.

* * *

Everyone except Vivi and Sanji went into town to look for Luffy now that we wouldn't stand out as much as before. Nami was constantly pulling Usopp and Chopper away from scammers in the market place trying to sell painted gold apples, claiming they were precious artifacts.

That's when Zoro noticed a man with Luffy's wanted poster asking around if anyone had seen him.

"Maybe he's a bounty hunter…" Nami said.

"No," Zoro said. "He's not." The man walked away, revealing a large tattoo on his back. "That mark…" Zoro said to us. "As a former pirate-hunter, there's no way I wouldn't recognize it." He looked back at the man, but saw someone else instead. "Here…?! It's her! What's _she_ doing here?!" He proceeded to hide behind a large pot.

Nami and I looked at each other in confusion. "What're you doing?" she asked.

He poked his head from behind the pot. I gazed in the direction he was looking.

"Ca-Captain Sm-Smoker!" I said, seeing him.

Everyone else hid behind the pot too.

"The navy captain from Loguetown!" Nami whispered.

"He followed us all the way here?!" Usopp whispered back.

"It would seem so," said Zoro. "Then there's that man… This could get ugly quick."

"Where is that idiot?!" Nami asked angrily.

We decided to go back to the ruins to fill the rest of the crew in on what we saw.

"Nami-san! Magnolia-chan! You've come back!" Sanji said.

"The navy is here," Nami said, ignoring him.

"Navy?!" Vivi asked.

"And a strange man!" added Chopper.

"Let's find Luffy soon and leave town," said Nami.

Zoro started pushing us into the ruins, saying "Hide. Hurry."

"What is it?" Usopp asked.

"The navy!"

I could hear angry screams of people coming towards us. They were all yelling about not letting someone escape.

"Some idiot pirate must be running around town or something," Sanji determined.

"Idiot pirate?" everyone asked.

All of a sudden, one of the navy men said, "Get back here, Straw Hat!"

"LUFFY!"

"Oh, so that's where you guys are!" Luffy said, seeing us.

"Get rid of them first!" Zoro yelled.

"Whaddo we do now?!" Usopp asked.

"Run to the ship!" Nami said.

We all grabbed the supplies and started running after Luffy with the navy on our tails.

Cpt. Smoker was about to attack, when out of nowhere, someone yelled, "Heat Haze!" A giant column of fire hit the smoke and both attacks dispersed. "You may be smoke, but I'm fire," said the strange man looking for Luffy earlier. "A fight between us would never end."

"He has Devil Fruit powers?" I asked.

"Who is he? Why is he helping us?!" Usopp asked.

"Ace!" Luffy said.

"You haven't changed a bit, Luffy!" said the man named Ace.

"You ate a Devil Fruit?!" Luffy asked.

"Yep! The Flare-Flare Fruit," he said. "We can't chat like this. I'll catch up. You guys run!"

"Let's go!" Luffy yelled.

As we ran away, Luffy revealed that the man named Ace was his older brother.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	14. Into the Desert

**Author's Note:**

**I'm so sorry I haven't updated in forever! I started high school about a month ago and took a small hiatus to get into the grove of things. Anyway, here's the long-awaited next chapter.**

"Is that guy really your brother, Luffy?" Nami asked.

Luffy replied, "Yeah! His name's Ace."

"What's he doing in the Grand Line?" Zoro asked.

"He's a pirate! He left the island three years before me to find the One Piece!" Luffy explained.

"Well, anyway, let's hurry back to the ship," Nami suggested.

We kept running away from the Marines stalled by Luffy's brother. Soon the path forked and we took a left. When we got back to the ship, we loaded up all the supplies and got ready to set sail. I ran up the rope ladder as fast as I could just in case the Marines got past Luffy's brother.

I took a deep breath and saw that they weren't coming.

That's when we realized Luffy was missing.

"That moron!" Zoro complained.

"Should we wait?" I asked.

"Nah, let's just set sail," Nami said.

"Is it really ok to set sail without him?" Chopper said when we started moving.

"The navy will be all around, so we should just hide the ship before we get spotted," she said. "Maggie, keep a close eye out for the navy and Luffy, alright?"

"Got it!" I said. I fished the telescope out of my bag and looked all around for any sign of either our captain or the navy. So far, I hadn't seen anyone.

We sailed for a couple more minutes until I finally saw him. "Everyone! Luffy-san's at the harbor waving at us!"

He stretched his arm and got a grip on the ship. He flung over and knocked Sanji and Chopper down in the process.

"I'm back!" he said.

Vivi helped up the fallen crewmates.

"Sorry 'bout that!" Luffy said nonchalantly. "Oh wait. What about Ace?"

"Was it ok to leave him there?" Usopp asked.

I looked through my telescope at the harbor and saw Ace. He was jumping through the air and coming to land on our ship.

He kicked Luffy in the face as he landed on _Merry_'s railing.

"Oh! Ace! This is the crew I was talking about!" he said.

"Thank you all for taking care of my little brother," Ace said politely.

"You guys probably have a lot of catching up to do. I'll make some tea," Sanji said.

"No, that's ok. Don't do it just because I'm here," he said.

Everyone was shocked at the vast difference between brothers. Luffy was a bit reckless and Ace was sensible and polite.

"Umm… Everyone!" I said, looking into the sea. "Baroque Works ships!"

Vivi gasped and said, "Billions!"

"Those guys again?" Luffy asked.

"I got this one, Luffy," Ace said.

He hopped off the ship and got onto a small yellow boat powered by his fire. When he got close enough, he jumped onto the first of the Billions ship. He punched his fist into the air and a gigantic column of fire sunk all of the ships. He jumped back onto his small boat and came back on the _Merry_.

"Woah!" Usopp said.

"That was so cool!" I said.

Everyone was happy to have Ace on board, especially Luffy. It turns out that Ace was going to Yuba as well as us, so he agreed to ride along with us. Ace was looking for a man called Blackbeard; he killed a crew member and ditched the Whitebeard's so now Ace was going after him.

Vivi said she wanted to stop the ship for a moment.

"I have an important task for Karoo," she said.

We pulled the ship over and anchored it into place. Karoo, Vivi, Usopp and Luffy got off for a moment.

"Karoo, I want you to go to Alburna Palace and deliver this letter to my father. I wrote down everything Igaram and I learned about Crocodile and Baroque Works, also that I've returned to Alabasta alive with some friends," said Vivi.

Karoo saluted his friend and quacked. Vivi tied to letter to him and told him to drink his water sparingly.

"Good luck, Karoo!" Luffy said.

Karoo quacked goodbye and took off running into the desert.

* * *

We reached Erumalu, our last stop before crossing the dessert. Vivi handed me an orange cloak-like outfit and said it was to keep the sun off of my skin. I put it on over the dancer outfit. Nami had a white one on and Vivi had a navy one.

"Vivi-chan! Nami-san! Magnolia-chan!" Sanji yelled. "What happened to the dancer outfits?!"

"Exposed skin will wind up terribly sunburned!" Vivi explained.

Sanji started sulking in the corner. Vivi gave a red cloak to Luffy as well.

"Let's get ready to go," said Zoro.

As Zoro was about to drop the anchor, weird seal/turtle-like animals popped out of the sea.

"Kung Fu Dugongs!" Vivi said, recognizing them.

"'If you want to come on shore, you'll have to beat me first'," Chopper translated.

Usopp underestimated them and jumped off the ship. He was beaten up in seconds.

Luffy jumped off as well and beat up the leader, who bowed to Luffy.

"It's the Kung Fu Dugong's rule that if someone loses, they all become the winner's pupil," Vivi said.

Soon all of the Dugongs were surrounding Luffy with looks of admiration. Luffy had some fun playing with the Dugongs, but then Nami yelled at him and said we had to head out.

I climbed down the rope ladder and onto the deck. One by one, we stepped off the rope ladder and onto the ground. Nami and Vivi put their hoods up, so I did the same.

Luffy really wanted to take the Kung Fu Dugongs with us, but Vivi and Nami totally rejected him.

Chopper gave them a small piece of meat and told them to stay.

After a momentary goodbye, we all started walking into the hot desert. I was much happier that we were crossing a desert instead of a blizzard. I absolutely hate the cold, but I was used to the heat. As long as we had enough water and food, everything would be perfect.

We walked up a tall sand mountain and only saw ruins.

"Is this Yuba?" Luffy asked.

"No…" Vivi said, seemingly shocked. "This is Erumalu. It used to be called the City of Green."

"It doesn't really look green anymore…" I said.

"This is exactly what Baroque Works is doing to our country," Vivi said.

We walked through the ghost town. It was pretty eerie. The wind whistled through the holes in the buildings and sand blew in the wind, making it seem like someone was tapping on your shoulder.

Vivi explained that the citizens of Alabasta were under the impression that the king was using a type of green powder called Dance Power to make it rain in the capital city, Alburna.

"Wait, but wouldn't something like that be perfect for this country?" Usopp asked.

"There's a big catch, though," Nami said. "The neighboring country had a drought."

"So it steals the moisture from other countries to make rain?" I asked.

"Basically," Nami said. "Eventually war broke out between the country that developed it and the neighboring one. Ever since, the World Government put a ban on Dance Powder."

The citizens of Alabasta continued to believe that the royal family was using Dance Powder to only keep moisture in the capital.

"Of course, my father had nothing to do with it, but at the same time a massive amount of it was found inside the palace…" Vivi said.

We came upon a dry sandy road and asked Vivi where it would take us if we followed it.

"It was a canal that used to bring water in from the Sandora River," she said. "With the canal dried up, the City of Green couldn't get water and eventually was abandoned."

We parted ways from the canal and went forth, leaving the once called City of Green behind.

* * *

About thirty minutes into our journey, Luffy was already very tired and hot. He'd found a walking stick and was clinging to it for support.

"Quit moaning so much," Nami said, annoyed. "You'll make yourself even more tired."

He groaned and Nami rolled her eyes.

I looked back and saw Zoro dragging Chopper on a sled made out of sticks. Usopp looked worn out as well. The rest walked as if nothing bothered us.

"Seriously… What's with all these hills?" Usopp asked. "I thought the desert would be more flat."

"This desert is pretty old," Vivi said. "Some of the sand dunes are almost 300 meters high."

"That's like climbing a mountain!" Usopp said.

Luffy continued groaning, so Nami said he could have one drink of water. Only one.

Instead, he took about thirteen. Everyone started yelling and hitting people.

"Stop fighting!" Vivi said. "You'll waste your strength!"

"She started it!" Luffy said, pointing to Nami.

"It's your fault!" Nami yelled.

"Yeah! This is your fault!" Sanji said.

I sighed and whispered, "Tick-Tock" which stopped time.

I dragged everyone away from each other and started time again with, "Un-Tock."

* * *

We camped inside a rocky place when the sun went down. The boys set up a couple tents and Sanji started cooking food over the fire Ace had made.

Ace distanced himself from our wild crew, sitting on a log outside a tent without saying much.

It was also starting to get very, very cold. Vivi, Nami and I huddled together.

As night turned into day, I woke up with Vivi screaming at everyone to get behind the rocks.

I shot up off the ground as quick as I could and walked outside. There was a sandstorm coming. We all hid behind the rocks as it passed over us.

"I forgot to mention it, but sandstorms are one of the desert's dangers!" Vivi said when it was over.

The tents were completely destroyed.

Despite the loss of the tents, we kept moving. Not even two hours later, while it was still morning, Luffy said he wanted lunch.

"Not until Vivi says so," Sanji said.

"Come on Vivi!" Luffy implored. "I'm hungry!"

"We're not even one tenth of the way to Yuba!" she said.

"But what about that proverb, If you're hungry, eat!" he said.

"That's not a proverb…" Usopp said.

"Ok, we'll take a break at the next rocks we find," Vivi said.

That got Luffy excited. He rushed ahead and started telling everyone to hurry to the next rocks.

"Whoever wins rock-paper-scissors has to carry everyone's stuff!" Luffy said.

"Hey-"

"Rock! Paper! Scissors!"

I quickly shot up rock, as did everyone else. Luffy was the only one to pick paper.

"Woohoo! I won!" he said.

We gave him all of our things to carry. I don't think Luffy actually meant to say the winner has to carry everyone's things… He started complaining even more. I asked Usopp to look on ahead with his goggles to try and find some rocks.

"I found them!" he said, not long after. "Rocks spotted up ahead!"

"For reals?!" Luffy said from way behind everyone else. He ran ahead, yelling, "Food!"

He came back a couple seconds later screaming that there was bad news.

"He's coming back?" I asked, confused.

"There are birds that can't move! Chopper!" he yelled.

Chopper stood up, looking serious and grabbed his bad from off his sled. He started running towards Luffy.

"Alright, let's go, Chopper!" he said. They took off running back towards the rocks.

Vivi looked worried. "Wait, Luffy-san! Don't tell me these birds are-"

Vivi started running after him. Curious, we all took off towards the rocks.

We found a devastating sight. The birds had taken all of our supplies.

"We've been had…" Nami said somberly.

"But it's the truth! There were dying birds over there!" Luffy said.

"I should have mentioned it earlier…" Vivi said. "Warusagi birds are desert bandits that trick travelers and steal their belongings."

"That's awful…" I said.

"Birds playing dead? That's dirty!" Usopp said, disgusted.

"They tricked me!" Luffy said, angry now.

Sanji got mad at Luffy for letting our stuff get taken away. "How are we supposed to cross the desert without our three days' worth of provisions?! Is your brain smaller than a bird's?!"

They started arguing, but Ace said it was no use to stop them. "Time's like this, it's best to let them have it out."

"Anyway, let's take a short break. This heat is what has them fuming," Zoro said, sitting on the rocks. "I'm sure we'll manage somehow."

I took off my hood as well as Vivi and Nami.

Luffy suddenly stopped brawling with Sanji. Apparently he saw the birds that tricked him and sprinted after them, yelling insults at them.

Vivi tried to stop him, but it didn't help.

"He'll come back eventually," Ace said.

After a couple minutes, we began to think he'd gotten lost.

"Jeez… He has a horrible sense of direction and just has to go running off," Nami said.

"And there are so many desert dangers he doesn't know about…" Vivi added.

"He's such a lost cause…" Zoro said, standing up.

"You can say that again," Sanji agreed.

They both started walking towards the direction he ran off to.

"Sorry," Ace said. "For my little brother's ineptness, I apologize for the trouble."

"Good luck finding him," Usopp said.

The ground started rumbling.

"What's happening…?" I asked.

Usopp pulled down his goggles and said, "Another sandstorm? Oh wait! Luffy?!"

"No… It couldn't be!" Vivi said.

Luffy came into sight riding a camel. It looked like they were running away from whatever was causing the rumbling.

"What's chasing him?" Sanji shouted over the clamor of the desert.

No one could see clearly what in the world could be chasing him. All of a sudden, out of the clouds of sand pursuing after Luffy and the camel, a giant beast emerged trying to eat them both.

"What is that?!" Zoro asked.

"A Sandora Dragon!" Vivi said, recognizing the beast.

It looked almost like a frog, but it was purple and had very large and pointy teeth. The dragon roared and hopped out of the sand on all four legs.

"He really does have a knack for attracting trouble," Ace said, grinning.

Sanji and Zoro ran towards the danger to lend three helping swords and a foot. The three monsters of our crew attacked all at once, killing the dragon in an instant. Everyone's mouths dropped to the floor in awe, even the camel.

"I almost pity the monster…" Nami said.

That's when the ground started shaking and another Sandora Dragon emerged from the ground right under our feet.

"I forgot to mention, but Sandora Dragons hunt in pairs!" Vivi yelled.

Ace stood up, looking at the monster with an amused frown.

"Look out!" Nami shouted to him.

"You wanna play?" Ace said to the beast. It roared back. "If that's what you want…" He gripped his hat and grinned.

Ace jumped into the air and the beast closed its mouth, trapping him. About a second later, fire escaped out its nose and the beast erupted into a column of red hot flames.

"Woah…" I said.

Ace remained when the fire subsided, unhurt.

* * *

After we regrouped and Zoro sliced up both of the Sandora Dragons, Sanji put the slices of meat onto a rock.

Chopper recognized the camel and said that he had helped him escape from Katorea.

"That's great!" Usopp said. "We can ride it!"

The camel did have a saddle, after all.

"Looks like it could carry two people," Sanji said.

"I wanna go first!" Luffy said as he tried to climb up, but the camel bit his head. "What was that for?" he asked.

Chopper translated as the camel tried talking to us. Apparently, no men were allowed to ride him.

Nami petted the camel after Usopp, Luffy and Sanji gave it a hard time. I walked over to the camel too and stroked its head.

"I'm sorry about them," Nami said. "Our crewmates are so ill-bred. You're a good boy. What should we call you?"

"Stupid!" Luffy suggested.

"Moron!" Sanji suggested.

"Doofus!" Usopp suggested.

"That's not nice…" I said. I stroked his forehead and said, "We should call you Lashes!"

"That's the weirdest one of all…" Zoro said.

"Well, _I_ like Lashes, so Lashes it is," Nami said, smiling at me.

I grinned triumphantly at Zoro. He rolled his eyes and walked away.

Nami got on top of the saddle and Lashes sat down so I could get on. I climbed up and saw that there was still room.

"Vivi-san!" I said. "Get on!"

"No, I can still walk," she said.

"Come on," Nami said.

The boys chanted that Lashes was a pervy camel.

I scooted back as Vivi hopped on. We all put on our hoods.

"We should make better time with Lashes," Nami said. "We'll get to Yuba even faster!"

"Giddyup, Lashes!" Nami said, cracking the reigns.

Lashes started cantering into the desert.

"Wait!" the rest of them called.

"If you don't hurry up, you'll get lost and never make it out of the desert alive!" Nami called back.

It was a little uncomfortable, but it was much better than walking. Lashes kept running for a while, until Nami said to stop. I'd lost sight of our crew.

"Do you think they'll be alright…?" Vivi asked.

"What if they already got lost?" I asked.

"They can follow the footprints," Nami said.

"I'm going to go look for them…" I said.

Nami told Lashes to sit down for a second so I could get off. I squeezed out of the seat (it was a little tight with three people) and hopped to the ground.

"Will you be alright?" Vivi asked, worried about me.

"She'll be fine," Nami said.

I nodded. "I have a canteen in my bag in case I get thirsty."

"Be safe…" Vivi said.

"I will," I said, heading the other way.

I followed our footprints until I started thinking of other things. By the time I realized I had completely lost sight of the footprints, it was already too late.

"Huh…?" I said, looking down. My eyes widened and I realized my situation. "I'm lost! Oh my gosh… I'm going to die out here all alone and probably of starvation and dehydration and I'm never going to see anyone ever again!" I dropped to my knees and took a deep breath. "It'll be ok, Magnolia. Get yourself together!"

I slapped my face and took out my telescope from my bag. I stood up and elongated the telescope, bringing it to my good eye. I turned 360 degrees and saw a person. I looked closer and saw that it was Ace. He looked alone.

_Maybe he's lost too…_ I thought.

I shrunk the telescope and put it back into my bag, heading in the direction of Ace. Thankfully, he stayed in one place so it didn't take long for me to see him. I waved my arms, hoping he'd notice me. He cocked his head to the side and realized who I was. We started walking towards each other.

"Are you lost, too?" he asked. I nodded my head. "Looks like we're in the same boat, huh." He looked to the side abruptly and said, "Did you just hear something?"

I shook my head and said no. That's when the ground from under my feet started raising up and I looked down to see the exoskeleton of a large bug. I screamed and stopped time, jumping off the bug just in time.

Ace just looked at the giant bug like it was nothing. That's when its tail came into view. It wasn't just any bug. It was a giant scorpion.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Ace said menacingly to the scorpion, eyeing its stinger.

But the scorpion didn't listen to his warnings, which eventually lead to its incineration.

Ace walked away from the scorpion, dusting his hands off like it was no big deal. I hurried after him.

"That was so cool!" I said.

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


	15. The Lost Trio

"It was nothing, really," he insisted.

All of a sudden, a new animal blocked our path. It was a lizard about as tall, if not taller than Ace, who was standing up right.

I took a step back, in case it was dangerous. Ace stepped to the side and the lizard mirrored him, stepping to the side as well. Ace stepped to the left and it followed. They just stared at each other for the longest time. Ace shrugged and walked around it. I followed him, though still uneasy about the lizard. The lizard followed after us.

"Why is it following us…?" I whispered.

"Maybe it's lost, too," he said.

It made sense, I guess. "Do you know what direction Luffy-san and the others went?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Not in the slightest, but we'll meet up with them eventually, I'm sure of it."

His words made me feel a little better, but not much.

We kept walking and the lizard kept following us. The lizard never made a sound; he just followed a few paces behind us. I began to ignore it because Ace didn't seem alarmed.

After we'd been walking for at least an hour in silence, I asked to take a break. Ace didn't look bothered by the heat; he did eat the Flare-Flare Fruit and all… But he said we could rest for a couple minutes.

I found a rock nearby and touched it to see if it was scorching hot, which it wasn't. I sat down and took a sip of water. It was hot and tasted like sand, but it was refreshing. I wiped the sweat from my brow and took a deep breath.

"So," Ace said, starting up a conversation. "How did you get lost? You were on the camel, I thought."

"Yes, I was riding Lashes, but we lost sight of the group, so I offered to go looking for everyone. I guess I didn't pay attention or something and wandered from the foot prints," I said.

"Ah," he said. "I was just walking and all of a sudden, I didn't see anyone around."

_Maybe he has a horrible sense of direction? Or maybe he's just very easily distracted… _I thought.

"Well, are you ready?" he asked.

I looked at the silent lizard and it stuck out its tongue like a snake, licked its eyeball, and reeled it.

_Eww… _I thought.

"I guess," I said, putting the canteen of water back into my bag. I stood up and waited for Ace to lead the way.

He started walking again, but then he stopped and turned to me. I almost bumped into him, but stopped abruptly as he did.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I almost forgot to ask…" he said. "What's your name again?"

"Magnolia," I said, a little hurt that he forgot my name, but I let it go because everyone makes mistakes.

"Nice to meet you, Magnolia," he said politely and started walking again.

"You too, Ace-san," I said. I looked back at the lizard and said, "I think we should name it. I mean, it's followed us all the way here. I don't think it plans on going anywhere."

"That's a good idea. You should pick the name," he said.

I thought for a while as we kept walking. "If it's a guy, Justin seems like a good name," I said. "But if it's a girl, we can call her Christy."

Ace looked back at the lizard and said, "Sounds like a plan, Magnolia." He paused for a second and said, "But what do we call it in the mean time?"

"Justin," I said.

"Gotcha."

* * *

We'd been walking for hours and I had totally run out of water. Ace looked like he was thirsty too. We'd barely made any conversation because I guess we both didn't know what to say to each other.

From his perspective, I'm pretty sure he thought it was a little awkward to be lost in the middle of a desert with a twelve-year-old girl and a lizard named Justin/Christy.

From my perspective, I was lost with the twenty-something year old brother of my captain and a weird lizard that kept following us. I wasn't sure what adults talked about with younger kids and I really knew nothing about him.

The thought made me realize that I really didn't know anything about most of my crew mates. But I dismissed the thought for a later time.

"Ace-san… You're part of the Whitebeard Pirates, right?" I asked.

"Yep."

"So what are you doing here in Alabasta?" I asked.

"Well, I heard Luffy was around so I thought I'd come see my little brother," he said. "But I'm tracking down a former crewmate of mine called Blackbeard. He killed one of our crewmembers and then ran off. On our ship, that's the ultimate crime. He won't go unpunished."

"That's awful…" I said. "But why did he kill the man?"

"Devil Fruit," he said. "Blackbeard wanted the Devil Fruit the other man had found so he killed him."

I rolled my eyes in disgust. "Devil Fruits really are from the devil… They make men do outrageous things like kill people for the thought of power. I honestly cannot stand them, even if they give you great powers. The world would probably be better off without them."

"I can see where you're coming from, but that doesn't mean the world should just get rid of them all," he said.

"I think it does…"

"Sounds like you've had a bad experience," he said, laughing.

"Yeah," I said. "I did." He asked if I was willing to share. "I guess…" I replied. "Well, my dad's a naval officer and he found a Devil Fruit and brought it home to my mom and I. We were torn whether he should eat it or sell it. I was five at the time so I didn't really get it. But the night he came home, my mom told me to eat it because she didn't want my dad too. So I did. And when my dad found out, he was really mad. He stole me away in the middle of the night and brought me on his ship. I spent eight years there. He basically used me to work his way up the ranks…"

"Wow," he said. "That's quite a story for someone of your age."

I said, "Don't get me wrong, I really like my powers, but sometimes I think my life would've been better without them. But then I wouldn't have met Luffy-san and everyone else. And I don't think I've ever been happier!"

"May I ask what the Devil Fruit you ate was called?" he asked.

"The Tick-Tock Fruit," I said.

Ace whirled around and his mouth dropped to the ground. "WOAH!" he exclaimed. "You got _really_ lucky! That's probably one of the most powerful Devil Fruits in history!"

"I'm still pretty limited though…" I said, blushing. "I mean, I can only stop time for about ten minutes before I exhaust myself…"

"It's still pretty awesome, though!" he said.

I nodded.

* * *

After our talk about Devil Fruits ended, Ace said we should probably search for water. About fifteen minutes later, we found a small pond with clean water teaming from the ground. Justin drank for a long time. We filled up our canteens and drank straight from the pond.

The water was cool and refreshing, but it still tasted like sand to me. We took a short break by the pond to cool off.

It was probably well into the afternoon when I could see a couple clouds of dust off into the distance. I wasn't very concerned until a couple minutes later they doubled in size and started heading straight for all three of us.

"Ace-san…" I said, pointed to the dust clouds.

"Oh crap…" I heard him whisper. "It's probably another sandstorm. Come on, hurry! We need to find a rock or something to cover us."

He started sprinting in the direction of a rocky area up ahead. I looked back to make sure Justin was following us, which he was. I also looked at the encroaching sandstorm. It was only about a mile away from us. I wondered if we'd make it in time and started running even faster.

By the time we made it to the cover of a couple tall rocks, the winds were strong enough to pick up a small animal. I crouched down next to Ace and held my hood so it would stay on.

"It's here," he yelled over the winds.

Even with the cover of a big rock, I was still thrown about twenty feet away and covered with sand. I guess I was just really light. When the storm was over, Ace rushed over and asked if I was ok. After I finished spitting out sand from my mouth, replied with a yes. Justin seemed ok too.

Ace helped me stand up and said, "It'll be dark in about an hour or so. We should probably look for a more suitable place to rest for the night. This place doesn't seem protected."

"I'll look for a better place," I said, fishing into my bag and pulling out my telescope. I elongated it and set it to my good eye. I looked around and saw a larger rocky area nearby. I passed the telescope to Ace and pointed in the direction of the rocks. "How's that?"

He set the telescope to his right eye and squinted the left. "Where again?" he asked. I pointed again in the direction. "Oh," he said, seeing it. "Yeah, that looks perfect. Good find!"

He handed the telescope back to me and I put it back in my bag. Ace lead the way to the rocky area with Justin and I following.

When we finally reached it, Justin took off running for the rocks.

"Oi, Justin!" I called, running after him.

I saw him run around a sharp corner and hurried after him. When I found him, he was laying down in a small cave. He looked exhausted.

"Hey, this is perfect!" I said, admiring his choice of camp. I walked out of the cave and say Ace casually jogging over to us. "Ace-san," I said. "I think Justin found a perfect place to camp!"

When he reached us, he too agreed that it was the perfect spot. Since the dark was coming even faster than Ace planned, he said he would go look for fire wood. He found a small leaf of the ground, set it inside the cave and lit it on fire.

"You stay here and don't burn yourself," he said. "I'll only be gone for a couple minutes."

"Sir, yes, sir," I saluted.

He set his things down and exited the cave.

I sat down next to Justin and sighed. It was nice to sit down. I took off my bag and hood and set them beside me. I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my head on them.

Despite the leaf being small, the fire was pretty big, warm, and bright. It was mesmerizing to see it flick back and forth. When I looked over to Justin, he had already fallen asleep. I patted his leg softly and said goodnight.

A couple minutes later, Ace came back in with a bunch of firewood. I have no idea where he managed to find it. "Got the firewood," he said.

"Thank you, Ace-san," I said. It was almost completely dark outside and that meant it was going to get really cold soon.

"No problem," he said.

Ace arranged the firewood accordingly and made his finger turn into flames, put it at the base of the wood and it caught fire.

"That's really handy," I said.

He smirked and said, "Yeah, I guess so. Still think the world should be rid of Devil Fruits?"

I shrugged and said, "Maybe, maybe not."

A wintry gust of wind blew into the cave and sent chills up my spine. I scooted closer to the fire to stay warm.

"Cold?" he asked. I nodded and said a little.

We sat in silence for a couple minutes, just staring at the fire.

"Say, Magnolia?" Ace said, breaking the silence. I looked up at his face. "How'd you meet my little brother anyway? I thought you said you were with the navy."

"I was," I said. "But I escaped one day while we were docked on an island. I ran to the opposite side of the island and found them there. I snuck on the _Merry_ and they found me a couple days later hiding in a barrel."

"A stowaway, huh?" he said.

I nodded. "I only planned to stay until they docked at the next island, but I guess sneezing isn't a good way to stay quiet."

He laughed. "What happened when they found you?"

"Well, Zoro-san sliced the barrel in half, which really scared me. I didn't really know what to do. I just started stopping time and running, stopping time and running. Then all of a sudden, Luffy-san's arm stretched and caught me. They asked a couple question and viola, I was the official watchman of the Straw Hat Pirates. Never seen my dad since."

"Watchman?" he asked, confused. "But you only have one eye!"

"No," I said. "I have two; just I wear this to keep people from staring at the clock on it."

"A clock?" he asked. "On your eye?"

I nodded and said, "Yep."

"Do you miss them?" he asked. "I mean your family. Do you miss them?"

"Well, yeah, a little. My mom is dead so I think about her a lot, but not so much my dad," he said.

"Understandable," he said.

"So, Ace-san," I said. "What about you and Luffy-san? What were you like as kids?"

He smiled and said, "Gosh, I'd have to think back…" he thought for a while. "Luffy's the same as ever, I suppose –except he doesn't cry anymore."

"Cry?"

"Yeah, he used to cry over almost everything!" he said.

I laughed and said, "That's hard to imagine!"

"Yeah, but I really didn't like him when I first met him," he continued. "My friend Sabo and I tied him to a tree once and planned to kill him."

I gasped. "That's awful…"

"Yeah, we were mean to him," he said. "But we came around eventually."

"I would think so," I said. "It would be so cool to have a brother or a sister."

"They can be a pain sometimes, but you gotta love 'em at the end of the day," he said, smiling.

I looked to Justin and said, "I wonder if he has a family. Maybe they're looking for him." I sighed and looked outside. It was completely dark. There was another gust of wind that made my hairs stand on end. I yawned for the first time, signaling my sleepiness and said, "I think I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, Ace-san."

"'night, Magnolia," he said.

I woke up very early the next morning; neither Ace nor Justin was awake yet. I stood up and saw that the fire had gone out. Ace was snoring particularly loudly and Justin still hadn't made a sound.

I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder, letting it rest on my hip. I fished out my canteen of water and shook it. It felt about half full. That was good. I took a couple small sips and put it back into my bag.

I walked outside of the caves and sat down in the cool morning air. I heard a couple loud snorts from Ace and then it sounded like a cow smacking grass.

"I'm hungry…" he said.

I stood up and walked back into the cave. "Good morning," I said.

"I'm _hungry_," he said, standing up. "Oi, Justin get up, we're going."

And with that, Justin sprang up from the floor and started walking out of the cave.

Ace and Justin walked out of the cave and I followed them.

* * *

We eventually found Luffy and the others the next day. After a short run in with some cowardly rebel pirates, we all were back on our way to Yuba.

Nami, Vivi and I all took turns riding Lashes again. When it was the middle of the day, even I couldn't stand the heat much longer, it was just so hot!

There were a couple more fights over water, too.

Nami was curious about the rebel army, so Vivi told us about the leader, Koza, who used to be one of her best friends.

Later that day, Luffy started hallucinating again. Nami sent Zoro off to go calm him down. Sanji, Usopp, Nami, Vivi, and I all started walking along without them. They would just follow our footprints, Nami said.

_Because that worked so well last time…_ I thought.

* * *

It was almost night when they still hadn't gotten back.

Usopp was falling behind again, even with his handy walking stick. I got off of Lashes and went to go help him.

"Usopp-san," I said. "Take as much time as you want."

"We have to get moving, though…" Vivi said.

"I know," I said, smiling. I touched his arm and said, "Tick-Tock." I stopped time.

He collapsed to the ground and said, "Thank you so much, Magnolia!"

He rested for about five minutes before he said he was alright again.

"Un-Tock."

"I feel better!" he said, in high spirits.

"That was so smart of you, Magnolia-chan!" Sanji praised.

I smiled and said, "It's nothing really!"

I struggled to get on top of Lashes and rested, a little tired from stopping time.

"You guys are amazing," Vivi said. "If thought that ever since Little Garden. You all have so much faith in each other. How do you know Luffy-san and the others are coming back? They could be hopelessly lost right now!"

"I guess it's because we all do what we can the best we can, it's not really something we're conscious of…" Nami said. "It's like something Luffy said back on my home island. He doesn't know how to use swords, he can't sail the ocean, he can't cook, he can't lie, and he can't control time. He said that he can't live without help. And I remember his words very well."

"I see what he's saying," I said. "Alone, there's only so much you can do, but together you can accomplish anything! But the teamwork doesn't go well if all your friends don't do what they can."

"Thank you," she said. "Really, that helped a lot."

A couple minutes later, Vivi started pointing to the horizon. We all looked over, wondering what was the matter. Zoro, Luffy, and Chopper were all there! They actually found us!

* * *

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)


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